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HISTORY 

OF 

M<4RTEJV 

ANP His" 

TWO LITTLE SCHOLARS 

0t a ^itcbap^clitror* 



BV TaE. AUTHOR OF 

• " Hie History of Margaret iHiyfe,' ? The 
T"xo Lambs" fyc. 



&ecrnt» ^Dition. 



WELLINGTON, SALOP: 

POINTED BY AND FOR F* HOULSTOK AND tygi 

Ant. sold by 
Sea ic'erd find LeUei-mau, Ave- Maria Lane, London* 

*>&> 
Price Is. <V. 



rRotered at Sratioiiers* HaU.] 



iisffiS 




/P-2&. 



THE 

HISTORY 

OF 

BI&RWIBIt 

' AND HIS 

TWO LITTLE SCHOLARS 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 

: The History of Margaret JVhi/te, v " The 
Two Lambs," 8fc. fyc. 



SECOND EDITION. 



WELLINGTON, SALOP: 

PRINTED BY AND FOR F. HOULSTON AND SON. 

And sold by 

Seatcherd and Letterman, Ave- Maria Lane, 

London. 



1821. 

[Entered at Stationers' Hall.] 



1.1 



/<Z#g'3/? 



THE following Chapters were origiaally 
written for the use of a little boy who was 
ployed in lecturing a class of very young 
Idren in a Sunday-school. The little 
oils were not advanced far, if at all, be- 
d their alphabet; but w r ere taught Watts's 
First Catechism in the course of the school 
exercises by word of mouth : on which ac- 
count the course of religious instruction in 
these Lectures was, as much as possible, 
conformed to that adopted by Dr. Watts; 
and frequently the very words of his Cate- 
chism are introduced. It was also part of 
the plan, that the young instructor should, 
at the close of his lecture, repeat aloud a 
A 3 



VI PREFACE. 

text of Scripture referring to the subject 
which had been under consideration, and 
this text was repeated five or six times by 
each child: and thus it was hoped, that 
every opportunity of this kind would add a 
text, tolerably well understood, to the little 
treasure of divine truths which the young 
ones were acquiring. 

The children taught on this plan were 
the inhabitants of a mining neighbourhood, 
as will be readily seen : but it is hoped, that 
the religious instruction contained in these 
Lectures may not be unacceptable to little 
children in general. 



THE 

HISTORY 

OF 

Marten and his Scholars. 



CHAPTER I. 



" God created man in his own image, in the image of 
God created he him; male and female created he them." — 
Gen. i. 27. 



THERE lived on the top of a high hill 
in the neighbourhood of Wellington, two 
boys, whose names were James Dainty and 
John Wylde. They did not live in the same 
house, but their little gardens were close to- 
gether, and their houses not far from each 
other; so they often played together, for 
there were not any other houses near to 
them. 

When these boys were very little, there 
was a Sunday-school opened near them ; and 



8 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

every Sunday a great many boys and girls 
were sent to the school, and James and John 
went too. The boys spent the morning, 
before they went to church, in learning to 
read ; and in the afternoon, the master made 
them stand up and repeat the Catechism, or 
verses out of the Bible, which he or some 
one else explained to them. 

In the evening, just as the master had 
made them stand up in their places, the 
clergyman and his little son came into the 
school; and the clergyman asked the mas- 
ter first one question about the children, 
and then another. " And who may these 
two little fellows be?" asked he, as he laid 
his hands upon the head of James Dainty 
and John Wvlde; "you have no boys so 
small as these in the school." 

" They are two little neighbours, who are 
come to school to-day for the first time," 
answered the master; "but I don't know 
what to do with them ; for they are so 
small, and so much behind the rest, that 
they cannot learn with them in the Cate- 
chism or the Bible, so as to understand any 
thing about it." 

"Poor little lambs!" said the clergyman, 
for he was one who had a great love for lit- 
tle children, " it is a pity that none should 
feed their souls with the bread of life." Then 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS* 9 

he turned to his son, and he said to him, 
"What do you think, Marten? would you 
undertake to teach these little boys, if I 
was to put them under your care?" 

Then Marten answered, " I will try, papa: 
but what must I teach them?" 

" The first thing you must teach them 
to-day," said the minister, " must be, who 
made them; and when they understand this, 
open your Bible and make them each repeat 
the twenty-seventh verse of the first chapter 
of Genesis five times after you." 

It was summer time, and very fine wea- 
ther; so the minister told bis son to take 
a little bench and put it on some grass un- 
der a tree in the master's garden, and sit 
down upon it, and put the two little boys to 
stand before him. 

Then Marten took the little boys and led 
them into the garden, and he sat down under 
the tree. And first, he asked the children 
their names, and where they lived; but they 
hung down their heads, and looked fright- 
ened. So Marten took out of his pocket 
two little pictures of a church, which his 
father had given him the day before, and he 
said to them, " If you will speak to me, and 
answer the questions I ask you, I will give 
you each one of these pictures." 

Then the little boys looked up, and did 



10 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

not seem so much frightened. So Marten 
said to them, " Can you tell me who made 
you?" 

John. I don't know. 

James. God made me, Sir. 

Marten. That is right: and where does 
God live? 

They could neither of them tell. 

Marten. Look up to the pretty blue sky 
over your head — God lives above the sky, 
in a beautiful place called heaven. Now, 
James, can you tell me where God lives? 

James. Above the blue sky. 

Marten. And what is the place called 
where God lives? 

James. Heaven, Sir. 

Marten. And can you tell me, John, 
who made you? 

John. God made me. 

Marten. And where does God live? 

John. Above the sky. 

Marten. What is the place called where 
God lives? 

John. I don't know. 

Marten. Tell him, James. 

James. It is called heaven, John. 

Then John repeated " heaven" after James. 

Marten. God is very good, and we ought 
to love him very much, and thank him for 
making us: for God made you, and me, and 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 11 

every body else. Can you tell me who did 
God make besides you and me? 

James. Every body, Sir. 

Marten. Is not God very good for mak- 
iug us? 

John. Yes. 

3Iarten. What return should we make 
to God? 

James. Love him, Sir. 

Then Marten said, " You have answered 
well." Afterwards he opened his Bible, 
and made each of the little boys repeat 
the twenty-seventh verse of the first chap- 
ter of Genesis five times after him; and he 
bade them remember what he had taught 
them, and gave them their pictures, and 
sent them home. 



12 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER II. 



"I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, 
Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." — Psalm iv. 8. 



il_ HE next Sunday morning, James Dainty 
was called early by his mother; and she 
made him put on his clean clothes, and 
wash his face and hands with cold water, 
before his breakfast. And this did not take 
him long, because she had washed him tho- 
roughly the night before with warm water 
and soap: so on Sunday morning he looked 
so clean and fresh, and his ears and neck 
were so white and delicate, and his hair so 
smooth and free from dust, that nobody 
would have thought he had been driving a 
jenny-carriage all the week, Mrs. Dainty 
used to say, " Sunday is the day on which 
God has chosen in a special manner to visit 
us poor creatures; and it is a sad way of wel- 
coming his day by lying in bed, and getting 
up at last with dirty faces and dirty clothes. 1 ' 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 13 

When James was dressed, his mother bade 
him sit down on a little stool, and eat his 
bason of milk porridge; and then she wiped 
his face, and ordered him to go to school, 
and be a good boy. 

"And, mother," said he, " shall I call for 
John Wylde?" 

" If you will/' answered his mother ; " but 
mind you don't stay for him, if he is not 
ready/' 

" No, mother," said James. 

" Stay a minute," cried James's sister, as 
she tied up two or three pinks and a rose 
with a bit of old-man and some sweetbriar, 
here's a nosegay for you; may be it will 
smell pleasant and fresh at school." So 
Mary fastened the nosegay in the button- 
hole of his jacket. " And mind," she add- 
ed, " to be a good lad." 

" Thank you, sister," said the little fel- 
low, as he ran out at the door. James was 
soon at John Wylde's house, and calling out, 
" John, are you ready to go to school?" 

John's mother peeped out her head at 
the door when she heard her son called. 
" Why, James, you are not going to school 
at this time of the morning are you?" said 
she, " my little lad has not had his break- 
fast." 

" O, James, wait for me; I'll be ready 

B 



14 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

directly," cried John, running* to the door in 
his shirt, his little hands, neck, and face, 
black with coal-dust. " Come, mother, 
wash me, and give me my breakfast." 

" Come in, you young rogue," cried his 
mother. 

" Will you stay for me, James?" repeated 
John, laughing, and never minding what his 
mother said to him, till she pulled him into 
the house, saying to James, " You had bet- 
ter go forward, my lad." 

So James went to school and learned two 
lessons before John followed him: and the 
master called him a good boy for being so 
early. 

The same evening, when the children had 
learned their lessons, Master Marten called 
his two little boys, and took them to the 
tree in the master's garden; and there he 
sat down on the little bench, and bade 
John and James stand before him. I shall 
now repeat what Marten said to them. 

Marten. Do you remember, John, what 
I told you last Sunday about God? 

John. Yes: you told us, that God made 
us. 

Marten. And what else did I tell you, 
James? 

James. You told us, Sir, that God lives 
above the sky, in a beautiful place called 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 15 

heaven; and that God is very good; and 
that we must love him very much. 

Marten. You have remembered very 
well. Now you can answer the questions 
which I asked you last Sunday, I have got 
some new ones to ask you. Is it day or 
night when the sun shines'? 

John. Day. 

Marten. And what is it when the sun 
does not shine'? 

James. Night, Sir. 

JSlarten. Can you see when it is night 1 

John. No. 

Marten. When the pleasant sun is set, 
and the dark night comes, and you lie down 
to sleep, God watches over you just as your 
mother used to watch over you when you 
were little babies, and slept in a cradle. If 
God did not take care of you when you are 
asleep, you could not live till morning. Do 
you think you can take care of yourselves 
when you are asieep? 

James. No, Sir. 

Marten. Then all good little children 
should kneel down and ask God to take 
care of them before they go to sleep. Do 
you say your prayers every night? 

John and James. Yes, Sir. 

Marten. But do you say your prayers 
in a morning; too? 



16 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

James. Yes, Sir. 

Marten. And do you say yours, John 1 

John. Sometimes. 

Marten. It is very naughty not to say 
our prayers in a morning. Who did I tell 
you it is that takes care of us in the night'? 

John. God takes care of us. 

Marten. And should not you thank God 
for watching over you all night, when you 
are asleep ? 

John. Yes. 

Marten. You know that you cannot take 
care of yourselves in the night, because it 
is dark, and you cannot see; but it is quite 
as true, that you cannot take care of your- 
selves in the day, though it is light, and 
the suu shines. If God was not to take 
care of you in the day, you could not live 
any more than you could live in the night 
without his care. Besides, God sends us 
all the good things we have; he is always 
doing us good: he sends us our break- 
fast, and dinner, and our supper, and our 
houses, and our warm clothes, and our 
beds, and our kind parents. So every 
morning, as soon as we awake, we ought 
to kneel down and thank God for having 
taken care of us all night, and then we 
ought to ask him to take care of us, and 
give us every thing that is good for us ail 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 17 

day. Now, can you tell me why we should 
sav oiir prayers in a morning'? 

John. I don't know. 

James. Because God has taken care of 
us all night. 

Marten. Yes, we should thank God for 
having taken care of us all night. And 
what should we ask God to do for us all 
day? 

James. We should ask him to take care 
of us still. 

Marten. Why should we ask God to 
take care of us? 

James. Because we cannot take care of 
ourselves. 

Marten. And what should we ask God 
to give us all day? 

James. Our breakfast, and dinner, and 
supper. 

Marten. Yes, we should ask God to 
give us every thing we want. 

Marten then commended James for an- 
swering so well, and he tried to make John 
answer the questions again ; and afterwards 
he made them both repeat the eighth verse 
of the fourth Psalm five times after him: 
and when they had finished repeating it, it 
was time for them to go home. 

b 3 



18 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER III. 



" From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which 
are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which 
is in Christ Jesus." — 2 Tim. iii. 15. 



JL HE next Sunday morning, when James 
Dainty was dressed, and was sitting at the 
door of his parents' clean house eating his 
breakfast, his father, who was dressed ready 
for church in his Sunday coat and clean 
blue woollen stockings, drew, his chair be- 
side the child ; and he reached down a large 
Bible, which had been given him by his mo- 
ther, and in which all his children's ages 
and names were written, and laying the 
book slowly upon his knees, " My little 
lad/' said he, " what book is this?" 

" Why, father," answered the child, " is 
it not your great Bible, which grandmother 
gave you ? " 

" True, my lad : but do you know whose 
book it is? — who wrote it?" 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 19 

" No, father." 

" Why, it is God's book : he gave it to 
us, and in it he tells us every thins: that we 
must do in order to get to heaven." 

" Does it, father? I should like to read 
t." 

" That is what I send you to school for, 
ny lad, that you may learn to read the 
Bible, and know what it means too. When 
[ was a little one, my poor mother used to 
ake great delight in teaching me all she 
mew : and before she died she gave me this 
)Ook, and she said, ' Son, this book has 
>een my riches all my life long : it was my 
Measure when I was a child ; it was my 
;uide when I came to woman's estate; and 
t is all my comfort now. Mind, son, that 
ou give heed to teach it well to your little 
nes.'" 

"Father," said James, "don't I remember 
randmother? did not she walk to church 
/ith that gold-headed stick which stands 
•y your bed-side? and did not she stop to 
est very often?" 

" Yes, my lad, she walked to church, or 

\ might better say, crept there, the very 

unday before she died. She loved God's 

ouse, and the place where his honour dwell- 

th; but she is in God's house above now." 

William Dainty wiped his eyes with the 



20 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

back of his hand. "And, father/* said 
James, " was not our little Bell called after 
grandmother?" 

" Well, I believe she was," replied Wil- 
liam; " but that is not to our purpose now. 
I was going to tell you, that you must take 
very great pains at school to learn to read, 
and likewise you must strive to get a Bible, 
or a Testament, may be, at first, of your 
own." 

" My master says," answered James, " that 
he thinks, before Christmas, I may get into 
the Testament; but I sha'n't have a Testa- 
ment of my own to take home when I do 
read." 

" Why, my lad, don't you bring home 
tickets every day when you go regular? and 
are not these tickets to go for books, or 
handkerchiefs, or some such thing as the 
minister is so kind as to give you ? Now, I 
dare say, if you would ask your little mas- 
ter, he would speak for you, that when the 
prizes are given away, you might have a 
Testament instead of any thing else." 

" I will speak this evening about it," an- 
swered James. 

" But mind you speak civilly," said Wil- 
liam; " and, you know, you are not to be 
in a hurry, but wait the master's time for 
the book." 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 21 

" Yes, father." 

" But that is not all, my lad. I was go- 
ing to say that you young ones have a great 
privilege, which they had not in my time, 
of being instructed by their betters. So if 
you would understand your Bible when you 
have got it, you must take good heed to 
what your little master says: for he must 
know a great deal more than you do, if he 
minds his father at all; for he takes great 
delight in teaching him, as I have heard 
tell, besides the pattern he sets him." 

"Father," said Mary, coming up to them, 
" the clock will strike just now." 

"You must be going then, James," said 
William. 

" But not before your face is wiped," 
added Mary, smiling; "and turn round, 
and let me brush your coat." 

Then little James said good-bye to his 
father, and thanked his sister for brushing 
his coat, and away he ran to school. He 
minded his lessons very well all that day; 
and as soon as evening service was over, 
and the children were gone back to school, 
he made haste to his little master Marten, 
who was sitting on the bench in the garden, 
and he took out of his pocket a small bag, 
in which he kept his tickets, and he said, 
<( If you please, Sir, I have got three tickets, 



22 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS* 

and my father says, you will be so good as 
to give me a prize for my tickets. May I 
have a Testament?" 

Marten smiled, and answered, "You must 
have a great many more tickets before you 
can have a prize." 

" Must I, Sir?" said the child, rather sor- 
rowfully; but after thinking a little while, 
he added, " But when I do have a prize, 
Sir, may it be a Testament?" 

" Well," answered Marten, " I will speak* 
to my papa about it; and I dare say he will 
let you have one, when you have tickets 
enough. But why do you want to have a 
Testament V 7 

James. Because father says it is God's 
book, and it will teach me the way to hea- 
ven. 

Marten. You have answered right; and 
I was going this very evening to teach you 
a verse about the Bible, or the Scriptures, 
which means just the same as the Bible. 

Then Marten turned to John, who had 
followed James into the garden, and he 
said, " John, why do we learn to read the 
Bible?" 

John could not tell ; and James answered, 
" That we may learn about God, Sir." 

Marten. Yes; the Bible is the book 
which teaches us about God. You knoW, 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 23 

the Sunday before last, I tried to make you 
understand that God made you, and me, 
and every body else; and last Sunday, I 
taught you that God is always taking care 
of us, by night and by day, and that he is 
always doing us good: and all this we learn 
in the Bible. Do you remember it? 

James. Yes, Sir. 

Marten. And what did I tell you that 
you ought to do for this good God? 

James. You told us, Sir, that we ought 
to love him. 

Marten. And if we love him, we ought 
to try to do every thing that will please 
him, and that he would like us to do. Do 
you know, James, what will please God? 

James. No, Sir. 

Marten. No ; we cannot know what will 
please God, and what he has ordered us to 
do, without reading God s word, that is, the 
Bible. 

Then Marten asked John a great many 
questions about the Bible, which I have not 
time to put down now; and then he made 
the little boys repeat five times the fifteenth 
verse of the third chapter of the Second 
Epistle to Timothy. 



24 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



" The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the 
evil and the good." — Prov. xv. 3. 



<lD AMES and John were walking together the 
next Sunday afternoon to school; and the 
weather being tine, they went slowly along, 
looking first at one thing, and then at ano- 
ther, as children are apt to do. Now their 
road lay round the master's garden, and in 
one part of it there hung over the paling a 
bough of a fine apple tree, and on this bough 
there were several beautiful apples, of a fine 
rose colour, smelling very sweet, and quite 
fit to gather. " O ! what beautiful apples ! " 
said James ; " I dare say they are quite ripe." 

" Let's get them," answered John ; " who'll 
know 1 " 

"Get them!" repeated James, "why it 
would be very wicked." 

John. Father would not beat me, if he 
was to know. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 25 

James. But my father would. 

John. But he won't know. Besides^ 
we won't get them all. There is one, two, 
three, four, five, six, seven; and we will 
only get three: I'll have two, and you shall 
have one, and who will miss them? — and 
nobody can see us! 

James. Yes, God can see us: he can 
see at all times. 

John. How do you know that? 

James. Why, father has told me so very 
often. 

John. Well, I don't care; I don't think 
he sees us now, so III have an apple. 

Then John jumped up to reach a little 
branch, which was rather more out of sight 
than the other branches, and on it were 
three fine apples; and he pulled it down, 
and said, " Look, James! are not these 
beautiful apples? which will you have?" 

Now James was a very wise little boy; 
for he knew that he loved apples very much, 
and he thought that if the apples came very 
near to him, he should not be able to help 
getting one of them: so when he saw that 
John was pulling the bough down, he set off 
and ran to school as hard as he could run. 

Whether John stayed to get the apples or 
not James did not know, for he very soon 
followed him into the school; and a few 
c 



36 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

minutes afterwards, Master Marten came in 
and heard the little boys spell: for he said, 
he wanted to know how far James was got 
in his reading, and how long it was likely to 
be before he would be able to read in the 
Testament. The boys were very fond of 
having their lessons heard by Master Mar- 
ten: for he was not like some little boys, 
who, when they are hearing other children 
say their lessons, are very cross, and scold, 
and order about them as if they were grown 
men; but he remembered how much trou- 
ble it gave his papa and mamma to teach 
him every day, and so he was very patient 
with his scholars on a Sunday. 

When the little boys had done spelling, it 
was time for them to go to church ; and 
when they were come from church, John 
and James were called to Master Marten, 
who was sitting on the bench under the tree 
in the master's garden, and they were both 
standing before him, before James knew 
whether John had taken the apples. 

As soon as they were all in their places, 
Marten said, " I am going to talk to you 
to-day a little more about God. God is a 
spirit; and though we cannot see him, yet 
he sees and knows all things, and he can 
do all things. Do you know, James, what 
is meant by a spirit \ n 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 27 

James. No, Sir. 

Marten. I am but a little boy, and so I 
cannot explain these things well: but then, 
too, you are very little boys, and can under- 
stand very little; but I will try to explain it 
as well as I can. — You, and I, and all other 
people, can only be in one place at a time. 
While we are standing in this garden we 
cannot be in our own houses, can we? 

James. No, Sir. 

Marten. But our thoughts can be in a 
great many places all at the same time, 
cannot they? 

James. I don't know, Sir. 

Marten. Why, can't you think of God, 
and of your father, and of your master's 
apple tree, all in the same moment? 

John and James turned quite red, and did 
not answer till Marten repeated the ques- 
tion. Then James answered, " Yes, Sir." 

Marten. Well, then, something like your 
being able to think of a great many places 
or things at once, so is a spirit able to be 
in a great many places at once. God is a 
spirit: he has not got a body like us, and 
so we cannot see him; but he is in every 
place at once. He sees every thing you do, 
and hears every thing you say, and knows 
every thing you think of: and if he is 
pleased with you, he can give you every 



28 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

good thing; and if he is not pleased with 
you, he can strike you to hell. 

Then Marten stopped, and asked John 
and James a great many questions about 
what he had been saying, to see if they 
understood it: and then he turned towards 
John, and looking very gravely at him for a 
few minutes, he said, "John, who saw you 
this evening, when you reached down the 
bough of the master's apple tree, and when 
you plucked three apples, and ate one of 
them, and put th€ other two in your 
pocket?" 

John coloured, and trembled, and hung 
down his head; and James coloured too, 
and felt ashamed that he had stopped even 
for a minute, to look at the apples. 

Marten. God saw you, John, and he 
ordered it so that I should see you too, for 
I was following you at a little distance ; and 
what you did was displeasing to God, and 
he marked it down in his book, just as you 
will see me mark it down in my book ; and 
some day or other he will call you to ac- 
count for it, as my papa will too in a little 
time. 

Then Marten took out of his pocket a 
little pocket-book, and a pencil; and he 
put down what John had done, and said 
he should shew it his papa: for he must 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 29 

not punish him himself, only he took out of 
his pocket the two apples, one of which 
was bitten, and returned them to the master. 
Then he talked a great deal to John about 
the wickedness of stealing, and where thieves 
go when they die; and then, having made 
both the boys repeat the third verse of the 
fifteenth chapter of Proverbs, he sent them 
away for the present. 



C 3 



30 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER V. 



"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind." — Matt. xxii. 37. 



JL THINK we have all seen enough of little 
John Wylde, to know that he was not so 
wise or so good as James Dainty, and that 
he had not, like James, kind parents who 
would try to make him good, and who would 
punish him when he was naughty. So John 
was not ashamed to tell his father the next 
Saturday night, that he had gathered one of 
his master's apples, and he was afraid there 
would be a noise about it on Sunday; and 
he begged his parents not to send him to 
school the next day, for he said, " May be, 
if I don't go to school on Sunday, they will 
have forgot all about the apple against I go 
again," 

"Poor little lad!" said Johns mother, 
" it is a pity to punish thee for such a small 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 31 

matter; it is but a child's fault to take an 
apple/' 

His father made no answer, but went on 
smoking a pipe he had in his mouth. 

So on Sunday morning, as soon as John's 
mother awoke, she said to her husband, "As 
our little lad is at home to-day, suppose we 
borrow William Dainty's mule, and go to see 
brother, and take him those few early pota- 
toes which he sent to ask us for last week." 

" Well, do as you will," answered Tom 
Wylde; "but may be Dainty won't let his 
muie go, he is so over and above particular." 

" Leave that to me," answered his wife. 

" But mind, mother/' said John, " you 
don't go to borrow it till James is gone to 
school, or else he'll tell the parson." 

John's father and mother were scarcely 
dressed and got down stairs, when James 
came running to the' door, and tapping 
smartly at it, cried out, " John, John, are 
you ready?" 

" Go forward, my little lad," answered 
John's mother, "and John will soon be after 
you." 

John's mother would have gone into a 
violent passion with any person who called 
her a liar, yet she did not mind telling a lie, 
whenever it suited her convenience, if, as 
she said, it was to do nobody any harm. 



32 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

And now, when she had eaten her breakfast, 
and made herself a little clean and tidy, she 
went over to Mrs. Dainty's house. Mrs. 
Dainty had just finished dressing her three 
little ones, and had put on her clean gown 
and apron, and was sitting with the youngest 
child on her lap, waiting till the bell should 
ring for church. Their little dinner was got 
ready on the Saturday; so she never stayed 
at home to cook on the Sunday morning, 
but warmed up the dinner when she came 
home from church. And her husband was 
not like some men, who give more trouble 
than ordinary on a Sunday, let God be ser- 
ved or not. " Good morning, Mary," said 
John Wylde's mother, as she came into the 
house. 

" And good morning to you, Sally," an- 
swered Mrs. Dainty. 

" I am come to ask a little bit of a favour 
of you," said Mrs. Wylde. 

*' I am sure," answered Mrs. Dainty, 
" that I shall be glad to do any thing for 
you, as far as it lies in my power." 

" Well, then," said Sally, " the thing I was 
come about was, to borrow your little mule 
for an hour or two this afternoon ; I reckon 
your husband is not going to use it." 

"No," replied Mary, "to be sure: but 
what has happened to take you out to-day I " 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 33 

" A little matter of business/' answered 
Sally. 

" But must it be done to-day ? " said Mary. 

" I suppose it may be a week," answered 
Sally, "since my brother over yonder sent 
for those potatoes ; and I am willing to oblige 
him with them, for he is very well to do in 
the world : and us poor folks can't afford to 
lose a day's work to be travelling across the 
country on week days." 

All this while William Dainty, who had 
been reading in the chimney-corner, had 
kept quite silent; but now laying down his 
book, " Neighbour," said he, " I'll thank 
you to answer me one question — Where did 
those potatoes grow that you are going to 
take to your brother?" 

Sally. Why, in the early border in our 
garden. 

William. And how came they there? 

Sally. How came they there ! why, my 
master planted them. 

William. Ay, he planted them ; but what 
made them grow there? 

Sally. Why, what simple questions you 
ask! what makes any thing grow, but rain 
and sunshine? 

William. And who sends rain and sun- 
shine? 

Sally. It is the Lord's doing, to be sure. 



34 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

But why do you stand catechising me here 
like a child of six years old? 

William. Well, I will only ask thee one 
more question — If God's mercy and good- 
ness gave you these potatoes, and not only 
them, but every other good thing you have, 
do you think the return you ought to make 
for his goodness is to break his laws? 

" No, surely," answered Sally. " But 
what are you driving at now?" 

" Why, my good neighbour," said William 
in a very kind manner, " it is only this — 
that, since God is so kind and good to us, 
we ought to serve him, and love him, and 
strive to do our duty to him, in every way 
in our power. We ought to fear to offend 
him, and we ought to delight to honour him, 
and praise him, and pray to him; and we 
ought to keep his day holy, and honour his 
church, aTid his ministers, and word." 

" And do you think," said Sally, " it is 
such a great sin for poor folks, who have * 
their bread to get, to spend a few hours on 
a Sunday on an errand or so?" 

" Neighbour," replied William, " I had 
rather take the word of God than the word 
of man ; and God hath said, Him that ho- 
nourtth me, I will honpur. Depend on it, 
if any one, for the sake of pleasing God, 
keeps himself on the Sabbath-day from 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 35 

business or play, and spends that day as he 
ought, God will bless that man, and more 
than make up to him, in a thousand ways, 
all he may lose on his account/' 

" Well, I suppose/' said Sally, turning 
short round, " I am not to have the mule; 
so good-bye to you." 



36 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER VI. 



♦ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." — Matt, xxii. 39. 



THOUGH Sally Wylde could not have 
William Dainty's mule, she borrowed a 
stout jack-ass from one of her neighbours, 
who cared little whether it rested on any 
day of the week or not. And the potatoes 
were thrown in a small bag across the poor 
donkey, and John was set to ride before 
them, and his father and mother walked by 
his side. They set out before ten o'clock, 
and soon after twelve, they reached the 
pleasant village of Wrockwardine. 

It was the time of service, and there was 
nobody idling arid wandering about: so 
Tom Wylde said to his wife, " It is a good 
step yet to your brother's, and I am very 
dry; come along with me to yonder public, 
and we'll have a draught. And do you, 
Jack, turn the ass to graze in the church- 
yard; but mind you have him out before 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 37 

the folks come out of church: and stand by 
him, and mind you do not leave him." 

" Very well, father," answered John. 

Then John led the donkey into the church- 
yard, and he began to graze ; for the grass 
was fresh and thick, and he had but little to 
eat at home. But John paid no regard to 
what his father and mother said to him, but 
left the donkey, and ran round the church 
till he found a high tomb-stone just below 
one of the windows; and here he stood 
peeping into the church. And while he 
was there, some pigs got out of the road 
into the church-yard, and came grunting to 
the place where the jack-ass was feeding; 
and some how or other, the bag that was 
on his back getting loose, the pigs got at 
it, and ate many, and spoiled more, of the 
potatoes. 

The pigs had been very busy many mi- 
nutes with the potatoes, when little John 
perceived that the sermon was ended, and 
the congregation were beginning to sing 
their last hymn; so down he jumped from 
the tomb-stone, and ran to look for his don- 
key : and here he perceived what mischief 
was going on. Then looking round to see 
if his parents were coming, he drove away 
the pigs; and collecting all the remains of 
the potatoes, half of which at least were 
D 



38 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS, 

bitten, he put them into the bag, and fast- 
ened them on the saddle again as well as he 
could, and jumped on the saddle himself. 

This was hardly done, when his father 
and mother came in sight. " My lad," 
cried out his father, " make haste, and come 
out of the church-yard, for they will be out 
of church directly." 

Now John was but a little fellow, and the 
poor donkey not much liking to leave the 
grass, he could not get him to stir. So his 
father, running up to him, gave the ass a 
great pull, and led him forwards: and this 
shaking the bag of potatoes, which John 
had not fastened on properly, it fell off, 
and out rolled the potatoes which the pigs 
had bitten. 

" Why, what's the matter now?" said the 
father; " what has happened to these pota- 
toes?." 

" I don't know," answered John. 

The father looked over the potatoes ; and 
seeing what state they were in, he called to 
his wife, and bade her come forwards, cry- 
ing out that his nice early potatoes were 
half eaten. , 

" Then it's those nasty pigs which have 
done it," answered his wife, running towards 
them; " I saw them just now coming out of 
the church-yard. You have been leaving 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 39 

the jack-ass, you young rogue," said she to 
John. 

" No, but I hav'n't, mother," answered the 
boy. 

I will not repeat the lies which John told, 
and all the bad words which his parents 
used to him. At last his father began beat- 
ing him very severely with the stick which 
he used for driving the donkey. John in- 
deed deserved to be well beaten, for he had 
been a very wicked boy : but his parents 
were not angry with him because he had 
sinned against God, but because they were 
vexed at the loss of the potatoes. If they 
had really wished to make him good, they 
would have been very glad to have had him 
punished at school when he stole the apple. 
Now John's father was in such a passion, 
that he never remembered that he was in 
the church-yard, or that the people were 
beginning to come out of church; and he 
went on beating the child, who was crying 
very violently. 

Many people collected round him, calling 
to him to stop. At last a very nice elderly 
lady, dressed in black, with a very pleasant 
countenance, came up to them. " My good 
man," said she, " what are you doing to that 
poor little fellow? Pray stop. Poor thing ! 
I cannot bear to hear his screams." 



40 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

"Young liar as he is!" answered the 
man, stopping, because he was almost out 
of breath, "he deserves to be killed." 

" Oh ! do not use such language," answer- 
ed the lady. "The child should certainly 
be punished, if he has told you a lie; but 
this is not the place, nor the manner. Be- 
sides, my friend," she said, looking at the 
donkey and his bag, " if you set your child 
an example of breaking God's laws, how can 
you expect him to keep yours?" 

The man by this time began to be fright- 
ened, lest he should get into some difficulty : 
so he set about fastening on his bag of po- 
tatoes once more, muttering however all the 
time to himself. The donkey too had bro- 
ken his bridle ; so that there was a good deal 
to be done before he could set out again. 

The lady called little John to her; and 
when she could get him to stop crying, she 
took out of her pocket a little gilt book, and 
she read to him out of it these words : ' My 
duty to God is, to fear and honour him, to 
love and serve him, to pray to him and to 
praise him.' And she read, further : ' My 
duty to man is, to obey my parents, to speak 
the "truth always, and to be honest and kind 
to all.' Then she said to him, " My little 
fellow, I shall perhaps never see you again, 
and 1 do not know who you are ; but I feel 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 4i 

very sorry for you, and I wish to shew you, 
that if you go on in the way you are now 
in, you must certainly come to that dreadful 
place where wicked children go. Your con- 
duct is very displeasing to God; for you are 
breaking the Sabbath, and it seems too that 
you are telling lies, and disobeying your pa- 
rents. Those people, my little boy, who do 
not do their duty to their God, never do it 
to their fellow-creatures. If you had been 
serving God to-day at church, you would 
not have told this lie, nor disobeyed your 
parents; you would have learned too, in 
God's house, that if we would please God, 
we must be honest and kind to every body: 
and you would not have deceived your fa- 
ther, and your father would not have beaten 
you so severely." Then the lady said, 
" God bless you, poor child ! " and giving 
the book to the little boy, she walked away 
to her own house. 

Just then Tom Wylde called his little son, 
and lifted him once more on the donkey, and 
the party set out again, silent and sullen. 
And little John thought to himself — " I 
should have been better off if I had gone to 
school to-day, though I had got a whipping, 
for the master never beats us in a passion ; 
and father has hurt me so, that 1 sha'n't be 
well of it I don't know how long." 
D 3 



42 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER VII. 



"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing 
thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a Delight, 
the Holy of the Lord, Honourable; and shalt honour him, not 
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor 
speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in 
the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places 
of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy fa- 
ther: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." — Isaiah 
lviii. 13, 14. 



AS Tom and Sally Wylde were returning 
home that night with their little boy and the 
ass, Sally said to Tom, " I shall call upon 
Mary Dainty, and shew her the cheese and 
the bacon which brother gave us; and then 
I wonder what will become of all her fine 
talking about keeping the Sabbath V 7 So, 
as they passed by William's house, they saw 
him, and his wife, and their five children, all 
sitting round the door, (for it was a fine 
summer evening,) and the eldest girl, Mary, 
was reading the Bible to them. And Sally 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 43 

called out, as loud as she could, " So, you 
see we are come back safe and sound, and 
Joseph Price's jack-ass none the worse for 
his day's work. I hope your mule's well 
in his stable." 

"Weli, I am glad you are come back 
safe," answered William, taking no notice of 
Sally's speech about the mule. 

Then Sally jumped off the ass, for she had 
got upon it, and she said, " I must come in, 
Mary, and shew you my luck. See this 
nice fat cheese which brother gave me ; and 
look ye, this is as pretty rhoded bacon as 
ever was cut with a knife. I should not 
have got all this, William, if I had followed 
your advice, and stayed at home/' 

" May be not," answered William. 

Sally untied the cloth which held her 
bacon and cheese, and laid them on Mary 
Dainty's round table, and then sitting down 
by it, she began to wipe her face with her 
handkerchief. John had been riding be- 
hind his mother, but he did net get off the 
donkey, for he did not wish to get into dis- 
course with James; and the poor ass stood 
quietly mumbling a thistle, while Sally sat 
talking with Mary and William. Her hus- 
band, too, who had had a little too much of 
his brother-in-law's ale, followed her into 
the house, and sat down. 



44 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

Now Sally was very proud of her bacon 
and cheese, and she wanted to vex her 
neighbour by talking of it. So she said 
again to Mary, " Well, what do you say to 
my day's work now? I am sure it ought 
to be every woman's work to founder for 
her family." 

"Very true," answered Mary, "all the 
six days : but we must remember, we have 
something besides a body to provide for." 

" It is very well for those as have no- 
thing to do," said Sally, not regarding what 
Mary said, " to be reading and going to 
church on Sundays; but for us poor folks, 
our family is the main thing." 

" Our children have souls, as well as us," 
repeated Mary. 

" Well," said Tom, who had been listen- 
ing to what his wife and Mary were talking 
abput, " I never was one who liked these 
godly doings. It's my way of thinking, that 
a man who works all the week hard in the 
pit, as we do, should have a little pleasure 
on a Sunday. In the summer time there is 
something to be done with the cocks ; and 
in winter, a jug of ale by the fire-side is 
better sport than sitting half a day in a cold 
church." 

" That would be all very true," answered 
William Dainty, "if there was no such 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 45 

thing as another world. You remember my 
mother, Tom?" 

" Yes," answered Tom, " I reckon I do." 
" Well," said William, " when T was a 
youngster, a bit older than our little lads 
here, a set of wild chaps ticed me, one 
Sunday evening, to go a-nutting with them. 
And when we had got fairly into the wood, 
they all sat down in a ring, I among them; 
and they brought out two young cocks, 
which they had been carrying, though I did 
not know of it, for they had hid them in 
bags, and they set them to fight: and then 
they set on to swear and gamble. One 
young lad in particular, a fine lad to look 
at he was, fell out with another about a bet 
they had made; till from words they got to 
blows. We parted them with some trouble : 
but the last words we heard the lad say, and 
those with an oath, were, that he would ne- 
ver lay another wager with the other young 
fellow. And true enough his words were; 
for before the same hour the next day he 
was a corpse: the rope broke as he went 
down into the pit on the Monday morning, 
and he was dashed to pieces without having 
time to say, 'God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner!' I helped to carry him to the grave, 
poor lad ! His parents made great mourn 
over him. He lies at the foot of the yew 



46 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

tree down by yonder little church. Well, 
the evening he was laid in the ground I 
told my mother how I had spent the last 
Sunday evening, for it lay heavy on my 
conscience. 

" ' Son/ said she, c repeat to me that an- 
swer which you learned in the little child's 
catechism, beginning, Then I shall be a child 
of God/ 

" So I answered — ■ Then I shall be a child 
of God, and have God for my Father and 
Friend for ever/ 

" When I had answered, she said, ' My 
lad, this world is not our place of rest; we 
are pilgrims travelling to another world. In 
a few years every thing in this world will 
have come to an end for ever; death will 
soon put a close to all our pleasures as well 
as our sorrows. All that will then signify 
will be, whether we have served God, or 
whether we have served him not. Choose 
God's service then, my boy; walk in his 
way, honour his day, go to his church, love 
his book ; and he will be your Father and 
Friend for ever. He will take care of you 
all your life long; and when you die, he will 
take you to his kingdom, where you shall 
shine forth as the stars for ever and ever.'" 

I do not know whether Tom and Sally 
listened to these words of William Dainty; 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 47 

but, almost before he had done speaking, 
they got up, and Sally made haste to tie up 
her bacon and cheese. And then they wish- 
ed William and Mary a good night, saying 
that it was time to be at home. 



48 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



"Moreover, by them is thy servant warned: and in keep- 
ing of them there is great reward." — Psalm xix. II. 



]&. FEW days after this, as little John 
Wylde and James Dainty were coming 
home, for their fathers worked in the same 
pit together, and they often went down 
with them, James said to John, " I shaVt 
go to work to-morrow, for father is going 
into Staffordshire, and I am to go with him." 

" That's like your father," answered John, 
" going on a Friday, instead of a Sunday." 

" Father says he would not travel on a 
Sunday, if he was to get all the ale by it that 
is drunk at our wake. And what did you 
get by travelling last Sunday?" said James. 

" I did not get much," answered John, 
" but mother got bacon and cheese ; and 
it was very nice cheese. We have toasted 
it for supper every night, and it is all gone 
now." 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 49 

James. Master Marten talked to us so 
prettily about that answer in the little ca- 
techism — * And what if you do not fear 
God, nor love him, nor seek to please him?' 
And he made me repeat the answer, for, 
you know, you were not there to answer it; 
and he made me say it after him till I could 
say it perfect. 

John. What was it? 

James. * Then I shall be a wicked child, 
and the great God will be very angry with 
me/ Then he told me how good God is, 
and how great he is, and that I ought to 
strive to please him in every thing I do. 
And he told me what a shocking thing it is 
to make God angry with us, and how he 
could strike us dead in a moment. 

John made no answer, but began pre- 
sently to whistle a song-tune. 

Before daylight the next morning, William 
Dainty and his little boy s-et out on the 
mule for Staffordshire. They passed Tom 
and his little boy on their way to the pit. 
" Good morning, Tom," says William; " we 
shall have a fine sun-rising." 

" Good morning to you," answered Tom. 
"Why, there's not another man in the coun- 
try that would lose a day's wages for no- 
thing." 

"I don't know that," auswered William; 

E 



50 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

u I have seen many a man sit half a day in 
the sunshine, playing, when he might have 
been earning his half-day's wages." 

" Well, well," said Tom, who loved to 
drink half a day in the public-house as well 
as any one, " a man must have a little play 
now and then: but I reckon it is not for 
that you are going out now?" 

" No, truly," answered William, " with 
my family, I can't afford much of that: but 
I have business, you know." 

" Well, if I had been you," answered 
Tom, "I would have done my day's work 
to-day, and gone into Staffordshire on Sun- 
day." 

" Come, come," answered William, in a 
good-humoured way, " let's have fair play. 
Your friends take a day or two every fort- 
night from their work to please themselves : 
it is surely very hard if I may not take a 
day or two, once or twice a-year, from mine, 
to serve God. While I can help it, 1 will 
never take God's time to do my business 
in ; — I mean his Sabbaths. God has bless- 
ed me, and taken care of me, from z little 
lad up to this very day, and, with his grace 
helping me, I never will forget him. And 
sure I am, that at his dying hour no man 
ever repented serving God. To my think- 
ing, the best inheritance a father can leave 



i 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 51 

his children is, to set them a pattern of 
walking in God's ways." 

Tom made no answer ; so William Dainty 
wished him a good morning. 

" Good-bye, John/' said little James. 

As John said good-bye in return, he 
thought to himself — " He'll have a plea- 
santer day of it than we had on Sunday." 

Now I must not make my story too long : 
so I will not tell you what a fine day it was, 
and how the sun shone, and what a number 
of flowers little James got, and how many 
rabbits he counted on the common, and 
how the birds sang in the trees. William 
Dainty was going to receive a little money ; 
for some time ago, he had worked for se- 
veral months in Staffordshire. When he 
had received his money, and visited some of 
his old neighbours, he made bold to call 
upon the parson of the parish; for when he 
had lived in that country before, the parson 
had taken great notice of him ; for he never 
missed church, and had the character of 
being sober, and never going to wakes or 
cock-fightings, or saying bad words. So 
the parson came out into the kitchen to 
speak to him, and made him eat and drink; 
and his wife and her little girls came out to 
speak to James. And before they went, 
the parson asked little James whether he 



52 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

went to school, and what he learned there; 
and then he gave him a Testament. 

Every body who has read the beginning 
of this story will guess better than I can 
tell them how glad James was to have a 
Testament. William Dainty took leave of 
his friends in good time, and set off again 
on his journey home. 

Now, as they had had a good rest, they 
made haste, and they reached home between 
eight and nine. It was getting dusk, and 
they met none of their acquaintance on their 
way : but as soon as the mule's feet sound- 
ed at their own door, Mrs. Dainty and her 
daughter Mary ran out to receive them, first 
rejoicing, and then crying; so that William 
began to be puzzled. " Well, well," he 
said, " what is the matter now?" 

" God has sent you out, in his great 
mercy," answered Mrs. Dainty, " praised 
and blessed be his name! Your pit has 
been on fire, and Tom Wylde is almost 
killed, and the little lad badly burned." 

William Dainty stood for a few minutes 
like one fixed : he remembered his discourse 
with Tom that morning, and his eyes were 
filled with tears. Before he would do any 
thing to the mule, he took his little boy by 
the hand, and led him into the house; and 
he said to him, " Did any ever trust in the 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 53 

Lord aud was ashamed'? O magnify his 
name with me, and let us bless the Lord for 
ever!'' Then he made all his family kneel 
down; and taking his Prayer-Book, he read 
aloud out of it the general thanksgiving. 

What account William heard from his 
wife about Tom Wylde and his little boy 
I shall not stay to put down now. 



E 3 



54 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



"I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear him 
which, after, he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, 
I say unto you, Fear him." — Luke xii. 5. 



WHEN William had heard all the par- 
ticulars of the shocking accident which had 
happened to Tom Wylde and his little boy, 
he did not wait to rest himself or to eat any 
supper, but he went directly to call upon 
the poor man, and James begged that he 
might go with him. 

When they got to the house, late as it was, 
they found the room down stairs filled with 
women: some were helping Sally to do such 
things as were wanted, (for she was going 
about the house like a distracted person,) 
but many were hindering rather than help- 
ing, and offering her vain comfort. 

William walked through the midst of them 
quietly up stairs ; and here he found the poor 
miserable man lying on his bed oi' death. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 55 

The fire had not much disfigured his face, 
but his body was in a wretched state, and 
his pain was violent. The child lay on a 
small bed near him. His face was so burn- 
ed, and so tied up, that nobody could have 
known him. Both were groaning, but the 
child seemed the most impatient. Late as 
it was, the clergyman was sitting by the bed 
of the poor man. 

William went up to Tom's bed, and he 
said, very kindly, " I am sorry to see thee 
bere, my lad." 

Tom looked at him very earnestly, but 
made no answer. 

" Sit down, my friend," said the clergy- 
man. 

So he sat down, but for some minutes no- 
body spoke. James meanwhile walked to 
the bed of his little companion^ and there 
he sat crying. At last, the clergyman said 
to William, " This is a bad season to have 
to learn one's religion." 

"True, indeed," answered William: "but 
I hope the poor man is willing to learn it." 

" That must be for God to know," an- 
swered the clergyman: "my business is to 
tell him the truth; I must leave the rest to 
God, But what I mean to say is this — the 
beginning of all religion, is the fear of God ; 
and the end of it, is peace and joy in believ- 



55 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

ing. But, when a man is full of pain, and 
his body is sinking fast into the grave, it 
seems a cruel thing to tell him, that his soul 
is in danger of hell : and many persons, be- 
cause they do not like this, will give their 
friends vain hopes of comfort." 

" Methinks," answered William, " this is 
cruel kindness." 

" Very true," replied the clergyman ; 
" and what I wish now to do, is to teach 
this our poor brother here, that God is as 
able to send his soul into the fire of hell, as 
to afflict his poor body, as he now sees fit 
to do ; and I want to make him see and feel, 
that he has been a grievous sinner against 
God, and that he deserves not only his pre- 
sent pain, but the fire of hell. When I can 
bring him to this point, then shall I rejoice 
to hold up our merciful Saviour dying on 
the cross, and point out to him the Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 
But till I see him humble, I cannot call up- 
on him to believe: there never was living 
faith without humility ; nor can I call those 
his friends, who give him hope because he 
feels stupid, and has no sorrow for sin." 

Having said these few words of caution to 
William Dainty, he turned to the poor man, 
and in the kindest manner tried to make him 
see what a sinner he was. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 57 

Tom seemed attentive; but all he could 
say was now and then " No/' and " Yes." 

After he had talked to him as long as he 
judged it proper of his own alarming state, 
and pointed out to him in what way he 
might look for mercy from God, the clergy- 
man knelt down and prayed by the bed-side 
of the poor man. Then he kindly took leave 
of him, with a promise to call upon him the 
next day ; but after that hour Tom spoke no 
more. 

William sat by him till his wife, who had 
undertaken to watch by him all night, came 
into the room; and then William was obliged 
to take his leave of him and return home, 
for he did not like to leave his family, as his 
wife was not with them. 

Before sun-rise the next morning Tom 
breathed his last — his day of grace was 
closed. No more shall the bell sound in 
his ears, and call him to the house of God ; 
no more shall he hear the warning voice of 
a minister of God ; no more shall the exam- 
ple of a pious neighbour remind him of his 
duty; no more shall the funeral, as it goes 
by, say to him, " Prepare to die ;" no more 
will his conscience, will the word of God, 
will the grace of the Holy Spirit, unwilling 
to leave him, strive with his rebellious heart. 

Mary Dainty and a few other women 



58 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

were by the bed-side of the poor man when 
he died, and his last groan sounded long in 
their ears. Whether he had paid any real 
attention to the words of the clergyman, and 
whether they had brought him in deep hu- 
mility to the foot of his Saviour's cross, can 
never be known till that awful hour when 
the secrets of all hearts shall be made mani- 
fest. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER X. 



"The heart is deceitful above all thing?, and desperately 
wicked : who can know it ?" — Jeremiah xvii. 9. 



JL f IE next morning, when William Dainty 
was gone to his work, and Mrs. Dainty had 
returned home, James asked his mother's 
leave to call upon little John; for his fa- 
ther did not take him with him that day 
into the pit. He was just setting out, when 
the clergyman and Master Marten passed 
by: and they stopped to ask Mrs. Dainty 
after poor Tom Wylde. 

When she said he was dead, the clergy- 
man looked very grave, but said nothing; 
so he and his little boy walked on to Tom 
Wylde's house, and James followed them. 

The house was still all hurry and bustle 
down stairs. The clergyman spoke a few 
words to the widow — he advised her to keep 
herself more quiet, and spend this awful sea- 
son in looking into her own heart, " God 



60 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

sends us afflictions," said he, " to turn our 
hearts to him? but they will do us no good, 
if we only make them an occasion for hurry 
and bustle and worldly discourse." 

Then he walked up stairs, and the two 
boys with him. On one bed was laid a 
clean white sheet, beneath which the shape 
of poor Tom's body, stretched out very long, 
was to be seen. Here the clergyman stop- 
pedj and the boys drew up close to him. 
They felt very cold, and stood quite silent. 
A woman who was sitting on the other side 
of the bed turned down the sheet, and they 
saw the sad and pale face of poor Tom. 
" Poor man!" said the clergyman, slowly; 
and then they turned away to little John's 
bed, and the woman covered the body with 
the sheet again: but the boys turned round 
from time to time tolook at it. " My boy," 
said the clergyman to John, " you are in 
great pain, I fear." 

The boy answered with a groan. 
" But there is a place where there is worse 
pain than what you feel now. You have 
been badly burned ; but the fire is gone out; 
it does not burn you now: but in the place 
I am talking of, the fire never goes* out; 
night and day it burns; and it gives far 
worse pain than you feel now. That fire 
will burn vou for ever, and never kill you, 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 61 

never go out. You would think it very 
shocking to be as ill as you are now for a 
week, or a fortnight, or a month, and much 
more for a year: but the fire of hell burns 
for years and years. When thousands and 
ten thousands of years are passed, it will but 
be beginning. You have heard of this ter- 
rible place, my boy?" said the clergyman. 

" Yes, Sir," answered John. 

81 And do you know, my boy, that you 
deserve to go to this place? — do you know 
that you have a very naughty heart?" 

" No, Sir," replied John. 

" Well," said the clergyman, " let us just 
recollect what has happened within a little 
time. Do you remember going to school 
the Sunday before last, and taking the 
schoolmaster's apples? Do you remem- 
ber how, last Sunday, to save a punish- 
ment, you broke the Sabbath, and how 
you told lies to your father?" (for the story 
of all this had gone abroad from John's 
mother, who told every thing that happened 
in her famijy to all her neighbours.) 

John seemed uneasy. 

■■* My boy," said the clergyman, " I am 
not repeating all this to vex you, but for 
your own good, as I trust you will find, if 
you will attend to me a little longer. Do 
not you very often say bad words, and quar- 

F 



62 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

rel and fight with your brothers and sisters 2 
And are not you greedy, and selfish, and 
idle? And don't you neglect your prayers, 
and live like a heathen, without any thought 
of God? I am telling you of all these things 
to make you know yourself, and to make 
you see that your heart is naughty; for if 
your heart had been good, you would never 
have fallen into all these sins. And now I 
beg of you, my child, to think a little to 
yourself, as you lie in your bed, and pray 
God to shew it you too, whether you have 
not been a naughty boy, and whether your 
heart is not naughty, and whether you have 
not done many things to make God angry 
with you. I will say a prayer by you, and 
then leave you to, think of these things; 
and by and by I will come and see you 
again." Then they all knelt down, and the 
clergyman prayed : after which he and Mar- 
ten went away; but little James stayed. 

John lay for some time very uneasy, 
sometimes groaning, and turning and toss- 
ing about. At last, he said, " James, when 
the parson comes again, tell him that my 
heart is naughty, that I am a naughty 
boy — God has told me so." 

"What do you mean?" said James: 
"how did God tell you?" 

" Why," answered John, " when the par- 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 63 

son was gone, I prayed to God to make me 
know if I had a naughty heart: and I think 
he has told me so ; for I know it now, and I 
do deserve worse burning than this." 

As he said these words, he laid his poor 
burned hand on the outside of the bed, all 
tied up with bandages, and covered with 
plaisters. 

James was very glad when he heard John 
speak in this manner; and he said, " I will 
run down and tell the parson what you 
say." 

He was just setting out, when he met his 
mother at the door, and he told her where 
he was going. So she stopped him, and 
said, " I am very thankful to hear this ; but 
we will see how the little fellow is first, 
before you fetch the parson." 

Now she had a bason of nice broth in her 
hand, which she thought he might like. So 
she sat down by his bed-side and offered it 
to him, and indeed fed him with it. He 
took it thankfully. And afterwards, seem- 
ing calm and disposed to sleep, Mrs. Dainty 
said to her son, " You shall leave him to 
have a little rest; and towards evening he 
may like to have some more talk with you." 



64 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XI. 



" If ye love me, keep my commandments." — John xiv. 15. 



ILHAT same evening, as James had step- 
ped in again to look at John, who had had 
a nice sleep, and was much refreshed, little 
Marten came quietly into the room. He 
had a small basket of oranges in one hand, 
and a little book in the other. He looked 
at poor Wylde's bed, as he slowly passed it, 
and then sat down by little John. " Papa," 
he said, " has been sent for to see a poor 
man who is very ill, and I have got his leave 
to come and see you, and talk to you as well 
as I can." 

Little John looked earnestly at James, as 
if he wished him to tell Master Marten what 
he had said to him in the morning. 

So James said to Marten, " If you had 
not been so kind as to call, Sir, I should 
have come up to your house to let your 
papa know what John says. He says, that 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 65 

God tells him he has got a naughty heart, 
and that he has been a very bad boy/' 

c< 0! how glad I am to hear that! how 
glad I am!" answered Marten. "I have 
been praying to God to make him know 
that; for I have been thinking of him ever 
since I saw him and his poor father this 
morning." 

" I know something about having been 
a naughty boy," said John, " but I want to 
know more. Can you tell me as well as 
your papa, Sir?" 

" No," answered Marten, " but 1 can tell 
you something: for papa and mamma teach 
me a great deal ; and every Saturday night 
sister Lucy and I meet in papa's study, and 
he makes us sit quite still and think over all 
the naughty things we have done that week, 
and then we put them down in a book and 
say a prayer." 

John. Please to tell me something, Mas- 
ter Marten, about it. 

Marten. There is a little catechism 
which we have learned by heart, which 
says, — * To sin against God is, to do any 
thing that God forbids me, or not to do 
what God commands me.' 

John. I do not know what those words 
mean. 

Marten. I will tell you what they nieau, 
f 3 



66 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

as well as I can.— You know that God 
made us, and gave us every thing we 
have? 

John. Yes. 

Marten. Well then, ought we not to 
love him with all our hearts, in return for 
his goodness? 

John. You taught us that under the tree 
in the master's garden. 

Marten. And how should we shew our 
love to God? 

John thought a little, but could not tell. 

Marten. Why, how should you shew 
your love to me? 

John. I think, by being civil and kind 
to you, if I could. 

Marten. Well then, just the same, if 
you wished to please God, you would try to 
keep his commandments, and not to do any 
thing that he did not like. 

James. That is just the same as those 
words you said just now. 

Marten. So, John, sinning against God 
is, doing any thing that God forbids, or not 
doing what God commands; because, you 
see, if we do not try to please God, we can't 
really love him. 

Marten stopped, and John was quite si- 
lent; so, after a little time, Marten went 
on — " Papa has often told me, that the way 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 67 

to know whether I have a naughty heart, is 
not to ask myself, whether I do any one par- 
ticular naughty thing, because perhaps the 
fear of being beaten may keep me from that; 
but to ask myself, whether I try to please 
God in all I do. Now, John, ask yourself, 
just as you lie in bed there — who have you 
been trying to please all your life, in all 
your thoughts, in all your words, and all 
your deeds?" 

" Why, myself," cried John, quite loud. 
" I never thought about pleasing God till 
to-day." 

Marten looked at James, and James look- 
ed at Marten. 

"Then," said Marten; "I will tell you 
what some other answers in the Catechism 
say. Now you know you have been a 
naughty boy, you must be sorry for your 
sins, and pray to God to forgive you what 
is past, for the sake of Jesus Christ, and 
you must try to please him and serve him 
better; and I will let papa know what you 
say, and I am sure he will come to you, 
and he will tell you all those sweet things 
about the love of Jesus Christ to poor little 
sinful children like us, which I do so love to 
hear of." 

While Marten had been talking to John 
he had laid his book down on the bed; and 



68 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

James took it up, and seeing there were 
some prayers in it for little children, he 
asked Marten to say one. 

So James and Marten knelt down, and 
Marten said a prayer, in a very slow and 
serious manner, and John joined in it with 
all his heart, as he lay in his bed. 

When they had finished the prayer, John 
seemed tired; so Marten took one of the 
oranges and peeled it, and gave it to him. 
And as these three little boys sat together 
in the room of the poor dead man, they 
tasted a peace such as John had never felt, 
even at the wake, when he went to see the 
bull-bait with his pocket full of halfpence. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 69 



CHAPTER XII. 



" God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begottea 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting- life." — John iii. 16. 



JL HE next morning, about ten o'clock, the 
clergyman with his little son called upon 
poor John. When he came to the bed-side, 
he said, " Peace be to this house, and to all 
that dwell therein ! " 

The words sounded very pleasant to the 
little boy, for he had passed a very unquiet 
night: he had lain awake a great deal, and 
he had been almost all the time alone; for 
the doctor would not suffer any one to sleep 
in his bed, on account of making his fever 
worse. So his mother and the children had 
made up a bed down stairs, where they 
were to lie till the funeral was over. There 
was indeed a woman sitting up, but she was 
chiefly down stairs by the lire; though slie 
paaie up now and then to look at the corpse 



70 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

and snuff a small candle which burned dimly 
on a little round table placed by the bed of 
the dead man. 

Here, alone, with the poor corpse, John 
had passed the night; and as he lay hot 
and feverish on his bed, he thought of many 
things quite new to him. His own heart 
talked to him, and told him more and more 
plainly of the naughty things he had done: 
and it was to him as the voice of God. He 
remembered how he had got up in a morn- 
ing, and lain down in his bed at night, with- 
out once thinking of God, though indeed he 
had hurried over a few words of prayer with 
his lips. He remembered the many wicked 
words he had said, and the lies he had told ; 
how he had quarrelled with his brothers and 
sisters, and beaten them, and how he had 
disobeyed his parents:— how he had, from 
the hour he could first remember to the time 
he was laid on his bed, tried only to please 
himself. He knew that it was God who 
had, as it were, rocked him in his arms of 
love ever since the hour of his birth, and 
who had given him every blessing he enjoy- 
ed ; and yet he had made no return of love. 
He had hated his service, taken his name 
in vain, and even when he had been in his 
house, and heard his Bible read, or said his 
name in his prayers, his heart had been far 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 71 

away from him. He had loved any thing- 
in the world better than God. 

When John thought of all this, he said to 
himself, " There is no place but hell fit for 
me." He repeated to himself, " Fire, ever- 
lasting; fire — fire worse than this burning:." 
Then he lay for some time in a great terror, 
till he remembered some words Marten had 
said in his prayer the evening before — " God 
be merciful to me a sinner." 

These words seemed pleasant to him, and 
he went on repeating them from time to 
time, till his poor body being quite tired, 
and the early light peeping cheerfully in at 
his window, he fell asleep, and rested for 
some hours. He had only been awake long 
enough to drink a dish of warm tea, when 
the clergyman called, as I have just said. 
He sat down by the bed-side, and took the 
little fellow's hand. " You seem very hot," 
said he. 

"O, Sir!" answered John, " God has told 
me all about it now." 

"What has he told you?" said the cler- 
gyman. 

" I asked Master Marten to tell you that 
I was a naughty boy yesterday, but I am a 
very naughty boy now: God told it me last 
night, when I lay all alone here with only 
poor father. O, Sir, God has loved me all 



72 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

my life long, and I have never loved him, 
O, Sir ! I shall go to hell, and I shall never 
come out of it again." 

" My poor boy, God has indeed always 
loved you, and you have indeed been a 
naughty, a very naughty boy, and deserved 
to go to hell, and never to come out. You 
cannot feel this too much. But, wicked 
as you are, God's love is greater than your 
wickedness, yes, and my wickedness, and 
the wickedness of the whole world. If it 
was not for this, we should all be lost, for 
ever lost. Repeat this verse after me — God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." 

" I cannot tell what you mean, Sir/' said 
the child, looking earnestly at him. 

" My boy," said the clergyman, " you 
have heard of Jesus Christ?" 

John. I have heard of him, but I do not 
know much about him. 

Clergyman. What have you heard about 
him? 

John. I have heard that he is the Son 01 
God, and that he died on the cross to save 
sinners. 

" Yes," said the clergyman, " to save sin- 
ners; to save naughty men and women, tc 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 73 

save naughty boys and girls, to save every 
body who knows that he has a very naughty 
heart, and is very very sorry for it, and will 
come to Jesus Christ to be saved." 

" Oh, Sir! I know that I have a very 
verv naughty heart: will Jesus Christ save 
me?" 

" Yes," said the clergyman, " if you will 
come to him." 

" Come to him ! " answered the boy ; " how- 
can I do that? Where is he?" 

Clergyman. He is here, he is every 
where: you cannot see him, but his arms 
of love are open to receive you. If you will 
pray to him, he will hear you, just as I hear 
you when you speak to me. 

John. What shall I say to him? 

Clergyman. I will kneel down by you, 
and tell you what words to say. 

Then the clergyman knelt down, and re- 
peated these words: " O Lord Jesus Christ, 
hear the prayer of a very wicked child, who 
deserves to be cast into everlasting fire in 
hell. He has sinned against thee ever since 
he was born ; but now he hates his sins, and 
desires with his whole heart to be saved 
from them. He comes to thee to be for- 
given for them, for the sake of that pain 
and sorrow which thou didst bear upon the 
cross for miserable sinners. Amen." 
G 



74 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

" O, Sir ! " said the boy, " will Jesus Christ 
hear those words ? " 

Clergyman. He has heard them, my 
boy, if you have said them from your heart. 
While you lie here, say them again and again 
to yourself, and think that Jesus Christ loves 
you, and is standing by you, and hears you. 
Marten shall come again this evening, and 
I will mark some places in the Testament 
which he shall read to you about Jesus 
Christ; and to-morrow I will see you again. 

Then the clergyman and Marten wished 
the little boy good-bye, and went home. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 75 



CHAPTER XIII. 



'There is none righteous, no, not one." — Rom. iii. 10. 



MARTEN paid little John many visits 
while he was unable to leave his room, and 
he brought his Testament with him, and 
read such parts of it as his papa had mark- 
ed for him. But before he began this plea- 
sant employment, his papa explained to 
John how it was that his heart had become 
so naughty. He read to him, in the Book 
of Genesis, the history of Adam and Eve 
being tempted by Satan to eat the forbid- 
den fruit: and he made him understand, 
that by disobeying God in this way, sin 
came into their hearts, and into the hearts 
of all their children ; so that every child is 
born with the seeds of wickedness in his 
heart, xAnd he shewed to him, that we all 
of us deserve to go to hell, and that by 
nature we are not fit for any other place. 
When John understood this more clearlv 



76 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

than lie had done, (for people cannot fully 
understand it till they have looked a good 
while into themselves,) the clergyman said 
to him, " I think, now you see how wicked 
your heart is, and that you deserve to go 
to that dreadful place, where there is fire 
and brimstone for ever, you will learn to 
love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
who so loved you as to come down from 
heaven to die upon the cross to save you 
from going to hell, and to give you a good 
heart, and prepare you for heaven." 

Marten read to John, every time he visited 
him, a little of the history of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. He began with that beautiful chap- 
ter which contains the account of the angels 
teliing the shepherds of his birth ; and he 
finished with the account of his rising again 
from the dead, and being received into hea- 
ven, and his promise to send the Holy Spirit 
into the hearts of his people. 

John listened with great attention, and 
even cried when he heard about our Sa- 
viour's sufferings on the cross. One day, 
he said to Marten, " I have often heard the 
name of Jesus Christ, but I did not know 
what he had done for us. Oh ! what a 
wicked child have I been all my life! how 
good God has been not to strike me 
dead ! " 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 77 

But I ought here to mention, that a 
few days after the clergyman first came to 
visit little John, his poor father was buried. 
John, as he lay in his bed, saw him wrapped 
in his shroud and laid in his coffin. Nose- 
gays of old-man and thyme, and other gar- 
den-flowers, were brought and scattered up- 
on the poor mans body. He saw the coffin 
nailed down upon his poor pale face, and 
he saw his mother and brothers and sisters 
in black, and many of the neighbours crying 
and lamenting, and he heard the church- 
bell toll at a distance. 

x\bout four o'clock the funeral left the 
house, and all the bustle and hurry which 
had been in the house was at an end, and he 
thought that he was left quite alone, when 
he heard the step of some one on the stairs. 
He had hid his face in the sheets, and was 
crying bitterly, when he heard Mrs. Dainty's 
voice calling gently, " John, my boy, how 
are you 1 " 

" Oh my poor father ! " answered John, 
sobbing, " Oh my poor father ! " 

Mrs. Dainty wiped her eyes with the cor- 
ner of her apron, and sitting down by John, 
she said, " Thank God, my child, who has 
given you time for repentance, and has 
in mercy made you see your wickedness. 
Think what you have deserved, and where 
G 3 



78 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

you would have gone, if God had cut you 
off, as he might have done, without even 
the time which your poor father had allow- 
ed him to call for mercy. But Jesus Christ 
has interceded with your heavenly Father, 
that you might be spared a little longer. 
He loves you better, my child, than I do this 
dear little baby that I have in my arms, and 
he has died on the cross for you, and borne 
all the punishment which vou deserve for 
your sins: and if you will come to him, and 
believe in him, and love mid serve him; when 
you die, he will send his angels to take you 
into a land of everlasting rest, where no evil 
shall happen to you, and where sin and sor- 
row shall never come. O my child! how 
can you think of the great love which Jesus 
Christ has for you, and not love him and 
turn to him ! for there never was love like 
his." 

John dried up his tears, as he listened to 
Mrs. Dainty; and she stayed with him till 
his mother and the rest of the family re- 
turned from the funeral, and then she went 
home. 

Mrs. Wylde with some of her neighbours 
came up stairs, and she broke out afresh 
into loud and violent cries. But I fear her 
grief was not of a sort to do her good ; for 
she did not kneel down and pray, or sit 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 79 

down quietly to read, but in a little while 
sbe went below again to some of her hus- 
band's relations, who, having come from a 
distance, had sat down to some ale, and 
little John was soon left alone. 

Many of the things which Mrs. Dainty, as 
well as the clergyman and Marten, had said 
to him, still sounded very pleasantly in his 
ears; but the sad thought that his poor 
father had gone unprepared into eternity 
greatly troubled him. The night was stor- 
my, and as the wind swept over the wood 
and rocked the window, he often awoke in 
a fright, and fancied his father was still 
lying on the next bed, and that he had just 
heard his dying groan. And then he would 
call upon his Savionr to have mercy upon 
him, and to prepare him for his dying hour. 
And that verse which he had often heard the 
children at school repeat out of the hymn- 
book came into his mind — 

■ ^ i Lord, at thy foot asham'd I lie, 

Upward I dare not look: 
Pardon my sins before I die, 
And blot them from thy book.' 



fiO MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



a I am the vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth in me, 
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for without 
me ye can do nothing.'' — John xv. 5. 



JI_N a little while, John was recovered 
enough to get up out of his bed ; and, soon 
afterwards, to walk about in the little gar- 
den. As soon as he was able to walk so 
far, he came down to the clergyman's house ; 
for he had desired him to do so. John was 
a great while walking so far; and James 
came with him, that he might rest upon his 
arm if he was tired. 

Marten was playing about the garden 
with his sister Lucy when he saw the little 
boys coming. So he ran to meet them, 
and took them into the kitchen; and the 
maid, who w r as sewing near the fire, set 
them chairs to sit down upon. 

Then Marten ran to tell his papa, who 
was writing in the parlour, that John was 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 31 

come. So he put his pen in his ink, and 
carefully closing the book in which he was 
writing, he got up and followed his little 
boy, who ran before him into the kitchen. 
" Well, John," said he, as he laid his hand 
on the child's head, " I am glad to see you 
out again. God has been very good to 
you to give you such a fine recovery; and I 
hope in a little time you will be able to re- 
turn to school and to work again." 

" Yes/' replied John, " I long to be about 
again as I used to be. It is better to be 
well and work hard, than to be sick and do 
nothing." 

" The thoughts of this, I hope, will make 
you thankful/' answered the clergyman, 
" when you return to work, and make you 
willing to do any thing that is set you. 
And I would have you consider, my lad, 
that God has given you, as it were, a new 
life, and that when you return to your old 
work and your old companions, yon must 
lead quite a different life to what \ on used 
to do." 

"OP cried John, "I think I can never 
fall into my old sins again, they do look so 
very ugly." 

" What did you find out, my lad," 
said the clergyman, looking rather grave- 
j iy, " what did you find out about your 



82 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

own heart, as you lay in your bed, when 
you were sick?" 

" I found out/' said John, " that it was 
very naughty, and very full of sin." 

" Yes, John: and was it not this naughty 
heart which has led you to sin against God 
through all your past life? And though it 
has pleased God to shew you your sins, 
and, I trust, to wash them away in the 
blood of Jesus Christ; and though I trust 
he is watering with his grace the seeds of 
a new life which have been sown in your 
heart; yet still your naughty nature is not 
plucked up, nor ever will be quite, till your 
soul leaves your body. So when you re- 
turn into temptation again among wicked 
children, you will find this naughty heart of 
yours continually trying to bring you into 
your old wicked habits again. And that 
wicked being, Satan, who goes about as a 
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, 
will try, too, to make you naughty again, 
that he may get you into his kingdom to 
torment you." 

"Then must I be a naughty boy always?" 
said John. 

"Heaven forbid that you should!" an- 
swered the clergyman; " Heaven forbid any 
thing so shocking! But what I mean to 
say is this, that you must not deceive your- 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 83 

self, and fancy that your naughty heart is 
gone, and that you can be good whenever 
you like: you cannot of yourself be good 
any more now than you could before you 
were ill." 

" I know," answered John, " that I must 
pray to God to make me good." 

Clergyman. But many people pray, and 
are not the better for it, because they do 
not pray rightly. How did you pray when 
you were in your bed, and asked God to 
forgive you for Jesus Christ's sake ? 

John. I do not know what you mean, 
Sir? 

Clergyman. Why, my child, when you 
asked God to forgive you for Jesus Christ's 
sake, did you not feel that you were a very 
wicked child, and that if God did not for- 
give you, you would certainly go to hell? 
and did not that make you pray with all 
your heart? 

John. Yes, Sir, indeed it did. 

Clergyman. Well then, just the same — 
if you know that you have got a very naugh- 
ty heart, and cannot be good of yourself; 
and if you want to be made good and like 
Jesus Christ, that you may go and live with 
him, shall you not pray with all your heart 
to God to make you good ? 

John. Yes, Sir. 



84 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

Clergyman. But if you think that you 
can be good without God's help, you will 
not pray to him with all your heart? 

John. To be sure not, Sir. 

Clergyman. Well then, you see, my dear 
boy, that the first step to be taken in order 
to be good is to find out that you cannot be 
good of yourself, without God's help. And 
when you know this quite, then you will 
pray to God with all your heart, and very 
often, to make you good, for your Saviour's 
sake; and then God will hear you, and he 
will send into your heart his Holy Spirit to 
teach you what you ought to do, and to 
make you able to do his holy will; and to 
teach you to be humble and obedient, and 
patient and gentle. He will make you like 
Jesus Christ in your thoughts, and ways, 
and words ; and so, when you die, you will 
go to live in his kingdom, with angels, and 
the souls of holy men, and women, and 
children. Do you think you understand 
this now, my boy? 

" I think I do," answered John. 

" Well," said the clergyman in a very 
kind way, " we will talk this over again 
another day. I think you seem a little tired 
with your long walk." 

Just then the maid brought John a glass 
of warm elder wine and a biscuit; for Lucy 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 85 

had begged her to fetch him something to 
eat. 

So the clergyman wished John and James 
a pleasant walk home, and he took Lucy 
and Marten with him into the parlour. 

When John was quite rested, and had 
drank his wine, he and James returned 
home. And they were both the better for 
what the clergyman had said, and I trust 
they will be so as long as they live. 



H 



86 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XV. 



" We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."— 
Rom. xiv. 10. 



ABOUT three weeks after this time, John 
Wylde told the clergyman that he was got so 
well that he begged he might be allowed to 
return to school the next Sunday. " And, 
Sir," said he, " I know that my name is 
down in the black book for stealing the 
master's apples; and, if you please, I should 
wish to be tried for it: for I know now that 
I was very naughty in running away that 
Sunday." 

The clergyman was pleased with John's 
request, but did not say so to him. He 
only answered, " Well, my boy, it shall be 
as you wish." But he said to Marten, when 
John was gone, " I like to see such proofs 
as these that a person's religion is in their 
hearts. In this country, I see so many men 
and women who talk a great deal about re- 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 87 

ligion, who yet never pay their honest debts, 
and do not mind what language they use, 
and are full of pride and high thoughts of 
themselves; and so many children who can 
read their Bible, and sing hymns, and who 
yet can quarrel, and lie, and cheat, and 
covet each other's things, and live just as 
those children do who never heard the name 
of Christ; that I am often grieved to think 
of the scandal they bring upon our holy 
faith. My dear Marten, I hope you will 
always remember, that if you wish to lead 
people to be religious, you must let them 
see that religion has made you meek, and 
humble, and industrious, and obedient, and 
honest. Then will people, seeing your 
good works, glorify your Father which is 
in heaven." 

The next Sunday, John having got leave 
of his mother, went with James to school. 
The master had quite forgotten his apples, 
and received John very kindly: and his 
schoolfellows came about him, and asked 
him many questions; and all seemed glad 
to see him. At first, the sight of so many 
children, and the sound of their voices, 
made his head turn round ; but after he 
had sat still a little while, he was able to 
come up and read. And the master was 
very much pleased to find that he could read 



88 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

a little in the Testament, and knew the 
little catechism which the lady at Wrock- 
wardine had given him; for he had spent 
almost all the long time he had been shut 
up in improving himself in reading and 
learning his catechism: and Marten had 
helped him; and William Dainty too, in 
an evening. How many things persons 
might learn when they are shut up in their 
houses by illness, if they would improve 
their time properly ! 

James too had got into the Testament; 
for, besides attending constantly at school, 
his father had taken pains with him when- 
ever he could. So James and John were 
put still into the same class; and the mas- 
ter told them that when he had examined 
them thoroughly in the little catechism they 
had learned, he should give them each the 
church catechism to learn by heart; and 
they were very glad. 

John was very much pleased at going to 
church again with his school-fellows; but 
it was not the first time that he had been at 
church since his illness; for as soon as he 
could walk at all he had gone to church. 
I am sorry to say that his mother did not 
take him there; though she went the first 
Sunday after the funeral, in her new black 
gown and bonnet; but William Dainty took 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 89 

him : and then for the first time he felt how 
pleasant God's house is. When he said the 
prayers, or listened to the sermon and the 
lessons, or sung with the pretty organ, he 
did not feel like the same little boy which 
he used to be. He felt like the holy pro- 
phet David, who says in the psalms, How 
amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of 
hosts! My soul hath a desire and long- 
ing to enter into the courts of the Lord. 
One day in thy courts is better than a 
thousand! 

But I must now return to John's trial, 
which was to take place the first Sunday 
evening of his going to school. So, when 
evening service was over, and the children 
were all returned to school, the clergyman 
asked the master for the black book; and 
then, sitting down on a high chair at the 
top of the school, he ordered the teachers 
to be placed on two benches on each side 
of him: and between them there was ano- 
ther bench placed which was opposite to 
him, and upon this he ordered John Wylde 
to sit down. The boy who was to be tried 
usually stood upon this bench; but poor 
John was still very weak, and his legs trem- 
bled when he was a little fatigued; so the 
clergyman bade him sit down: and when 
they were all in their places, he thus spoke 
H 3 



VO MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

to the boys — " My children, when I open 
this book, it is in general that I may find 
out the fault of some naughty child, who, 
perhaps, has been trying to hide it, and 
that I may consider what punishment such 
a child deserves; but I now open this book 
for a different purpose, and if you will listen 
to me, I will tell you the history of it." 

Then they all looked very earnestly at the 
clergyman, and after he had been silent for 
a few moments, he went on — " Some weeks 
ago, you may remember, that the little boy 
before you, John Wylde, was at this school, 
rosy and healthy, and as stout as any of 
you: but he will tell you himself, that at 
that time his body was more healthy and 
flourishing than his soul. I am sorry to 
say, that the last time he came to school 
he took, upon his way here, three apples 
which belonged to his master. This griev- 
ous sin was found out, and it was put down 
in the black book, that it might be con- 
sidered the next Sunday. 

" Now, when John knew that this was 
put down, and that he was likely to be 
punished for it, he did what I am sorry to 
say some other children in this school have 
also done — he determined to stay away 
from the school till he thought his offence 
would be forgotten. But, though he could 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 9L 

escape the rod of man, yet he could net 
escape from the hand of God. He did in- 
deed stay away from school, and break the 
Sabbath of his God ; but, before that week 
which he began in this wicked way was end- 
ed, he was visited with afflictions and sor- 
rows, which, as you know all about them, I 
need not tell you of again. But in the 
midst of wrath our heavenly Father remem- 
bers mercy — the Son of God entreated for 
him, that he might be spared yet another 
year. 

" While John lay on his bed of pain and 
sickness, it pleased God to make him see his 
great wickedness all his life past, and to lead 
him to know his only Saviour Jesus Christ, 
who had died for him on the cross. And he 
has learned, I trust, to pray earnestly and 
daily for the help of the Holy Spirit to make 
him a good boy. And now that it has 
pleased God to make him well enough to 
return among you, it is his own wish to 
be called up to trial for the sin of which 
he was guilty the last Sunday he was at 
school. 

> " But it is of no use to ask you, whether 
you think he committed the fault or not; 
for he owns it himself: and I shall not pro- 
ceed to punish him. I only punish you, 
my dear children, to bring you to a know- 



92 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

ledge of your sins, and to make you leave 
them off. But in this case, this work has 
been done by God himself. 

" It is said in the Bible, that all our sins 
are written down in God's book ; but I have 
good reason to hope, that Jesus Christ him- 
self has blotted out all the past sins of little 
John with his precious blood. Let him 
take care not to sin again, lest bitter things 
should be written against him. But if he 
should be so unhappy as to fall into sin 
again, let him without delay run to Jesus 
Christ to be washed and be made clean 
again." Then the clergyman, taking a pen 
in his hand, added, " 1 will also blot out 
the account of this sad offence; and I trust 
I shall never see John's name again in this 
book. 

" But, my dear children, I cannot let you 
go without begging you all to remember 
once more, that every thing we do wrong is 
written down in God's book, and that the 
blood of Jesus Christ alone can blot it out. 
Jesus Christ is ready and willing to wash 
away the sins of all those little children who 
come to him, and believe in him, and are 
desirous to please and obey him; and he 
will write down their names in his book of 
life. But now is the only time to come to 
him, now, while we are alive. The day of 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 1)3 

grace will soon be past, and there is no 
repentance in the grave. O my children ! 
if you come to Jesus Christ to believe in 
him and obey him, you will be happy for 
ever and ever: if you do not, you will be 
eternally miserable." 

The clergyman then asked the master for 
a Bible, and read the twentieth chapter of 
the Revelation, from the eleventh verse to 
the end. Then he rose up, and the chil- 
dren walked back seriously to their seats. 
Poor little John several times shed tears, 
and the more thoughtful and steady of the 
boys seemed disposed to treat him with 
great kindness. 



94 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



" I can do all things through Christ which strengthened 
me." — Philippians iv. 13. 



JbdVERY body wili wish to know how John 
Wylde behaved when he became stout 
enough to work at the pits and play as 
usual. He remembered what the clergy- 
man had told him about not trusting to his 
own strength, and earnestly praying for the 
help of the Holy Spirit : and if he ever did 
forget it, he was sure to be made to see 
how very true the words of the clergyman 
were; because he always fell into something 
wrong again, when he trusted to himself, or 
was less careful in watching or praying, or 
reading his Bible. Whenever he was so 
happy as to work in the same pit with Wil- 
liam Dainty, he always kept as near to him 
as he could; for next to having God for a 
friend, there is nothing so likely to keep a per- 
son out of sin as being with God's servants. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 95 

Sometimes he was very quiet, and nobody 
meddled with him, or said any thing to him ; 
but at other times his work took him among 
very bad boys and girls, who laughed at 
him for being a methodist, as they called it: 
and they would play him all kinds of tricks, 
and try many ways to lead him into sin. 
At one time, he was tempted to feel very 
angry, and even to fight with them ; and at 
another time, he was tempted to do as they 
did, and join with them in their wicked 
play. But I must tell you, that whenever 
he remembered to pray, he could always 
get over his temptations ; for he could pray 
in his heart, whether, he was driving the 
jenny-carriages, or whether he was down in 
the pit, or whether he was alone, or whether 
he was in the company of other boys and 
girls, he could say in his heart, " God be 
merciful to me a little sinful boy!" When 
he heard people swearing, or saw them 
fighting, or doing any other bad thing, and 
felt tempted to do the same, he could lift 
up his heart to God, and say, " Incline my 
heart to keep thy law." 

When John came home in the evening, 
he found very little encouragement to be a 
good child. His poor mother never was a 
clean or tidy woman, and never tried to 
snake the best of what she had. She was 



96 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

always complaining how little pay she got 
from the parish, yet never made any good 
use of the money she had. When she had 
just received her pay, she would get a few 
pounds of fresh bacon from the shop, or 
some new cheese, and there would be some- 
thing roasted or broiled for John's supper; 
and when the money was gone, he some- 
times had hardly a bit of dry bread for his 
supper, though he had worked very hard. 
Yet John never complained, nor did he 
ever say, as some wicked boys do, that 
he would have it, and that he would go out 
of the country and work for himself, if his 
mother did not give him what he wanted. 
Indeed, if he had the best of suppers, he 
was not very comfortable at home. His 
mother was either out, or her house was 
filled with neighbours; and they were talk- 
ing about all sorts of things, such as grown 
up men and women, as well as children, 
had better not hear of. 

The house was always dirty, and the lit- 
tle children were sitting round the fire upon 
their feet, without shoes and stockings, and 
their hair long and uncombed, and their 
clothes all rags. But John loved his little 
brothers and sisters; and as he could now 
read very well, (for he never missed the 
Sunday-school,) he used to teach them their ! 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 97 

letters, and some hymns, and verses out of 
the Bible. And he got them to leave off 
saying- bad words, and taught them to say 
their prayers; and their mother indeed said, 
that when the fine weather came again, she 
would try to get them some clothes, and 
they should go to school with John on 
Sunday. 

John used to beg his mother, in a very 
pretty way, to go to church: and now and 
then, if there was a new preacher, or if any 
of her neighbours were going, or she had a 
new bonnet on, she would go. But she 
had no idea of putting herself to any incon- 
venience, for the sake of going to pray to 
God, to beg his blessing, and to hear his 
words. She had always some excuse at 
hand, whenever any body talked to her 
about going to church. She had no 
clothes, for she did not like to go, unless 
she looked a little like her neighbours; or, 
the church was so cold; or she had a large 
family, and she must get the poor things 
some dinner on a Sunday, the only day she 
had them about her. And indeed she 
thought she did great things, if she spent 
all the Sunday in doing the things of this 
world, and then went into a neighbour's 
house at night where they were singing a 
hymn, or saying a prayer. 
I 



98 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

Though poor little John had so little 
comfort at his mother's house, yet he did 
not go over so often to William Dainty as 
he would have liked, for William Dainty's 
house was always clean and comfortable. 
If times were ever so hard, there was al- 
ways a little comfortable supper ready for 
William and James when they came home, 
and a clean hearth ; and the little ones were 
sitting round the fire with their knitting or 
their book, and they had clean good-hu- 
moured faces to welcome their father and 
their brother. And John might always 
have had a bason of broth with the chil- 
dren, and have stayed to hear William read 
the Bible with his young ones, before he 
went to bed; for William and Mary Dainty 
said, that poor little fatherless John should 
always be a child to them, while he was a 
good boy. But as John found that he 
could be of some use to his little brothers 
and sisters at home, he thought it was 
right to stay with them, even when his 
mother had nothing but a bit of dry bread 
at home. I wish all young people would 
think of this. In these days, children who 
go to Sunday-schools and day-schools are 
taught things which perhaps their poor pa- 
rents never learned in their younger days; 
and if they would teach these things to their 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 99 

little brothers and sisters at home, they 
might often lead them from the broad way 
of destruction which goes to hell into the 
narrow path of life that leads to heaven; 
and they might even do good to their pa- 
rents. 

There is a very pretty verse about this, 
which I would have little children learn by 
heart — They that be wise shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament ; and they that 
turn many to righteousness as the stars 
for ever and ever. (Daniel xii. 3.) 



100 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



" So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our 
hearts unto wisdom." — Psalm xc. 12. 



Jjl HE clergyman's son, Master Marten, was 
allowed by his papa to visit the Sunday- 
school regularly : and James and John were 
still in his class, besides some other little 
boys who were put in because he had taken 
so much pains with the two first children 
that had been given him; and he read 
and talked to them every Sunday evening. 
James and John now indeed were able to 
understand many things more difficult to 
teach than those which Marten explained 
to them in the beginning of this book. But 
then Marten also was much improved him- 
self, and took great pains in remembering 
what he was taught at home, that he might 
teach his little scholars the better on a Sun- 
day: and whatever Marten taught his little 
boys that it was right for them to do, he 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 101 

tried to set them a pattern of himself. If 
Marten talked to his children about obey- 
ing their parents, they would see him run 
the moment his father or mother called him, 
and obey their orders without a word of 
dispute. If he taught his scholars to be 
kind to their brothers and sisters, he was/ 
known to be the kindest brother himself to 
his sister Lucy and his little brother Henry. 
If he taught the children to pay respect to 
old people, they would hear the poorest 
old men and women in the parish praise 
Master Marten when he was not by for his 
civility and kindness and respect to them. 
When he told them how they must behave 
at church, they never saw any thing in him 
there that was unlike what he taught them. 
And if he told them the sin of bad lan- 
guage, no one ever heard a bad word come 
out of his lips. He never gave any one a 
rude name; but in the midst of his play he 
remembered to be kind and civil to every 
body : for Marten remembered that he was 
always in the presence of God. 

Now Marten was not by nature better 
than other little boys: and he knew this 
well. He knew that his heart was by na- 
ture a very naughty one: but Marten lived 
in the habit of secret prayer. He knew 
that he could do nothing good himself; but 
i 3 



102 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

he had been taught how much our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ loves little chil- 
dren: and he came to him not only in a 
morning and evening, but many times in 
the day he would go by himself, for a few 
minutes perhaps, and pray to God, for our 
Saviour's sake, to make him a good child. 
He was like one of those sheep which our 
Saviour speaks of in the tenth chapter of 
St. John, when he says, My sheep hear my 
voice, and I know them, and they follow 
me. And Marten will also be of the num- 
ber of those of whom it is said in the four- 
teenth chapter of the Revelations, These 
are they which follow the Lamb whither- 
soever he goeth; these were redeemed from 
among men. So little Marten set an exam- 
ple in his life of what was good and wise 
to his scholars. But he had another exam- 
ple to set them. It was the will of God, 
that he should teach his little scholars other 
lessons, which I shall now tell you about. 

Little Marten was not a very strong child ; 
he had frequently bad coughs, which con- 
fined him to the house, and he always look- 
ed pale and delicate, and was rather too tall 
for his age : so that his parents were obliged 
to be very careful of him. But when Mar- 
ten was eleven years old, he was attacked 
with so violent a cough early in the winter, 



LKTRN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 103 

that the doctor who was sent for thought 
that he could not live many days. He did 
however recover from this violent attack; 
but he was left in so weak a state, that it 
was feared he would never be quite well 
again. He was not allowed to walk out; 
though once or twice in the beginning of 
spring, when it was very fine and warm, he 
was drawn in a little carriage to church, 
and sometimes taken round the garden. 

In a little while it began to be hoped, that 
in summer he might recover his strength; 
but the cold weather suddenly coming back, 
his cough returned, and the doctor forbade 
his going out of the house, and ordered 
him to be kept very quiet. If at any time 
his father and mother were not with him, 
or his kind nurse Sally, Lucy and Henry 
took care of him. Lucy would read to 
him, or smooth his cushion, (for he lay on 
a sofa in a sitting-room up stairs,) or give 
him his medicine; and Henry would peel 
his oranges for him, or do any thing else 
he might want; and Henry was a very quiet 
good-natured little boy, and he took care 
never to disturb him. 

When Sunday came, and Marten heard 
the bells calling people to church, the tears 
would come into his eyes. And once he 
said to Lucy, " I should be very unhappy 



104 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

indeed to lie here all Sunday, instead of 
going to God's house, if I did not think 
this iilness was sent to make me more fit 
to go to God's house above : and that is my 
comfort." 

The children in the Sunday-school were 
always enquiring about Master Marten, and 
when he would be able to return, especially 
John and James: indeed, every body in 
the parish was very kind in enquiring after 
him. And some of the children, hearing 
that Master Marten was very fond of hav- 
ing flowers in his rooms, were continually 
bringing him the first flowers their garden 
afforded — nosegays of daffodils, and poly- 
anthuses, and white violets, and crocuses, 
and snowdrops. Marten was pleased with 
these presents from his old scholars, and it 
amused him to see little Henry sorting them 
in a flower-pot which he had on a table by 
him to refresh him. 

At last poor little Marten became so 
much worse, that there was very little hope 
of his recovery ; and he himself felt so ill, 
that he believed he should never be able to 
visit the school again. So one Sunday, 
finding his cough rather more easy than 
usual, he begged his papa and mamma to 
give his little scholars leave to come and 
see him. They were almost afraid it would 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 105 

be too much for him; but as he seemed 
very anxious about it, they said that John 
and James should come to him for a little 
while after evening service. The account 
of this visit I shall give in my next chap- 
ter. 



106 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



" Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, 
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when 
thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."—- Eccles. xii. 1. 



j^LS soon as evening service was over, 
James and John were told that they were 
to go and see Master Marten instead of 
returning to school. 

Then they were very glad, and made 
haste to the clergyman's house. But when 
they got to the house, and the servant took 
them up stairs, and bade them step very 
gently and make, no noise, they began to 
feel a little frightened. She opened the 
door of the sitting-room for them, and told 
them to walk in. Not very far from the 
fire, upon a sofa, lay Marten, his pale face 
leaning upon a cushion. 

As soon as he saw the little boys, he 
raised himself up, and the colour came into 
his cheeks, and he said, " O, James! O, 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 107 

Jolin! how glad I am to see you!" Then 
turning to Lucy, who was sitting by him, 
he said, " Pray, Lucy, let them sit down by 
me." 

Then Lucy got up and fetched her own 
stool and Henry's, and placed them by her 
brother, and she bade the two little boys 
sit down by him, and she seated herself 
on the sofa at Marten's feet, that she might 
be ready to do any thing for him he might 
want. 

James and John had scarcely any thing 
to say to Marten at first, for their hearts 
felt very sad to see him look so ill. The 
young ones were all silent for some minutes. 
At last, Marten said, " I shall never come 
to see you again at school." 

" O yes, I hope you will," answered both 
the little boys at once. 

" No, 1 know I never shall," repeated 
Marten; M and this was one thing I wanted 
to tell you. There is something here," said 
he, putting his hand on his side, "which 
will never get well. I shall never walk with 
you any more to God's house, nor read his 
book, nor talk to you about his love to poor 
little sinful children ; I shall be withered like 
the grass, which the mower cuts down with 
his scythe." 

Then the little boys both began to cry; 



108 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

and Lucy said, " O, brother, do not talk 
so." 

*' I did not mean to make you cry/* an- 
swered Marten, " I only meant to tell you 
that I was going very soon to die. But 
there is nothing in that to make you un- 
happy; for I know that Jesus Christ has 
died for me, and he has prepared a man- 
sion for me above the blue skies, and he 
has blotted out all my sins with his precious 
blood ; and I shall be with him and see his 
glory. Those are very sweet thoughts; 
and when I lie here and think of these 
things, I feel more happy than I can tell 
you of. But when I am up in heaven with 
Jesus Christ, you know you will not see me 
in this world ; and there are a few things I 
want to talk to you about, before I go away 
and nobody sees me any more." 

Marten stopped for a few minutes as if 
he would give the little boys time to speak ; 
but as they said nothing, he went on — 
" There is one thing in particular I want 
to talk to you about, which is, secret 
prayer. You know, we have all got naugh- 
ty hearts, — very naughty hearts, — and we 
cannot do the least thing that is good of 
ourselves: but, you know, we are often so 
silly, and so fond of play, that we forget 
this, and then we get proud, and conceited, 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 109 

and idle, and disobedient, and love our play 
better than God, and we get ashamed of 
being his servants; and if people laugh at 
us for trying to serve him, we learn to do 
all the silly things which they do. We 
have often talked about this under the tree 
in the master's garden, and, you know, we 
have said little prayers together; and you 
will think of this, perhaps, when I am quite 
gone. But I thought that I should like just 
to talk to you about it once more." 

Here he stopped to take breath, and 
Lucy brought him some roasted apple in 
a saucer, and when he had eaten it he said, 
"Eternity will soon come: we must soon 
dwell in that lovely land, the garden of 
the Lord, where joy and gladness shall be 
found, thanksgiving, and the voice of me- 
lody ; or we must be cast into that dreadful 
place where the fire is not quenched night 
nor day, and the smoke of which goes up 
for ever. This dreadful place we all de- 
serve to go to. We have been very naugh- 
ty children, all of us. Our thoughts have 
been naughty, our words have been naugh- 
ty, our actions have been naughty; but 
Jesus Christ can save us from that sad 
place, and take us to his own fair land. 
And he can blot out with his precious 
blood all the things which are written 

K 



110 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

against us in God's book, and he can send 
his Spirit into our hearts, and he can make 
us holy children, and carry us up at last 
to live with him, clothe us in white, and 
put crowns on our heads and harps in our 
hands. And Jesus Christ loves us very 
much, and he is ready to do all these 
things for us. O my dear sister ! O John ! 
O James! when I am gone, will you re- 
member to pray to him? I mean, very often 
in a day. When you have done any thing 
naughty, pray to him to blot it out of his 
book; and when you want to do any thing 
naughty, pray to him to send his Spirit 
into your heart to make you good; and 
when any thing vexes you, pray to him to 
make you happy. I was a poor little sinful 
child, and Jesus Christ has loved me, and 
washed me from my sins, and I am going 
to live with him for ever and ever/' 

While Marten said these words, he laid 
his head back on his pillow, and raised his 
eyes up with so sweet and heavenly a look, 
that Lucy and the two boys could not help 
looking at him, and wishing that they were 
got, like him, almost to the gates of heaven. 
For a few minutes he seemed to have for- 
gotten where he was, or to whom he was 
talking, and nobody spoke. At last, sud- 
denly turning round to the boys, he took 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. Ill 

their hands, and said farewell to each in 
a most kind and calm manner. And he 
mentioned the names of all the little boys 
in his class, and bade them give his love 
to them, and repeat to them what he had 
been saying. And he added, " Tell them 
that I hope we shall meet again in heaven, 
to serve God better than we have done 
here." 

And now Lucy, seeing that her brother 
was quite spent, and that he hardly seemed 
to know what he was saying, said to John 
and James, "Marten shall now rest a little." 

So they got up, and wiping away their 
tears, they took a last look of their dear 
little master, and went slowly and quietly 
out of the room. And Lucy, drawing the 
curtain to shut out the light, Marten closed 
his eyes, and fell into a calm and pleasant 
doze. His mamma came into the room to 
watch by him; and by the time tea was 
made, and his papa was returned from the 
school, he was rested enough to enjoy his 
company. 

What Marten said to John and James, 
they did not forget, as we shall see by and 
by ; and they did not forget to repeat to his 
little scholars what he had said: and many 
tears were shed by the children that even- 
ing. 



112 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



'* Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is 
stayed on thee : because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the 
Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting 
strength.'' — Isaiah xxvi. 3, 4. 



v ERY soon after this visit, little Marten 
got so much worse, that he could not get 
up at all from his bed, and the doctor said 
that he could not live much longer. He 
was become so thin, that nobody would have 
known him, except by his sweet smile and 
the kind pleasant look in his face. He was 
very weak, and often seemed too tired to 
speak ; and sometimes, too, he was in great 
pain, and his cough extremely troublesome : 
but he was very patient, and never com- 
plained. He took all his medicine without 
saying a word, and was very thankful for 
every thing that was done for him: if he 
did not feel able to thank people, when they 
waited upon him, he would smile and look 
pleased at them. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 113 

One evening, after he awoke from a sleep 
that had refreshed him, he asked for his 
papa and mamma. They were both in the 
room ; but he did not see them, because his 
curtain was drawn. So they came close to 
his bed, and stood one on each side of it. 
Then he stretched out his little thin hands 
to them, and he said, " Papa and mamma, 
will you forgive me? I have given you a 
great deal of trouble ever since I was a very 
small baby, and I have not minded what 
you have said to me, and I have not loved 
you as I ought to have done for all your 
kindness to me: will yon forgive your little 
Marten before he goes away ? I think that 
God has forgiven me, for Jesus Christ's 
sake, and that I shall be his child, and shall 
be taken up to heaven, and shall dwell there 
with God and Christ for ever." 

The little fellow stopped for a few mo- 
ments, and looked at both his parents. His 
mother could not speak, but covered her 
face with her handkerchief, for she could 
hardly help sobbing loud. "My child," 
said his papa, wiping away the tears from 
his eyes, " do not talk so: you have always 
been a dear dutiful child to us, and we 
bless God for ever giving you to us. Yes, 
my Marten, though we must now part for 
a little season, we shall meet to praise 
K 3 



114 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

God again together through a glorious etei- 
nity." 

" Dear papa, dear mamma," answered the 
child, " I do love you very dearly: I thank 
you for all your kindness and love to me; 
but now I thank you, more than for any 
thing else, for teaching me to walk in the 
way of salvation, and for punishing me 
when I was a naughty boy." 

Just at that minute, seeing Lucy with 
little Henry stepping softly up to the foot 
of the bed, he turned suddenly to them, 
" Dear Lucy," he said, " love papa and 
mamma, and be very dutiful and obedient 
to them, when your brother Marten is gone; 
and teach Henry to love them, and tell him 
how kind they were to me, and he must love 
them for me too." 

Marten's mamma stooped down and kiss- 
ed the dear little fellow's pale cheeks again 
and again; till his papa, fearing the child 
would be overcome, led her away into ano- 
ther room, and the two little ones with her, 
for they were sobbing loud. 

Some hours after this, he thanked his 
nurse Sally, who had lived in the family- 
some years, for all her kindness to him, 
and said, he feared he had often been very 
troublesome to her. Another time, when 
Lucv and Henrv were with him, he said he 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 115 

was very sorry he had ever quarrelled with 
them, and he hoped, for his sake, that they 
would learn to love each other more and 
more. Then he begged that, if his papa 
and mamma gave leave, some of his play- 
things might be sent to his cousins, to keep 
for his sake; and some money which he had 
been saving in a little bag to buy rewards 
for his scholars, might be laid out in little 
books, and given to them. One day also, 
when he was alone with his papa, (for he 
was careful to avoid saying any thing before 
his mamma and sister which he thought 
would vex them,) he mentioned a few things 
about his funeral, which, if his papa pleased, 
he should like to have done. These things 
were carefully attended to. 

After this last discourse with his papa, 
he said to his nurse, with a sweet smile, " I 
have now done with this world ; I have no- 
thing to do but to go home." And so it 
was; after that day he was never able to 
say many words together. But as his weak- 
ness increased, his pain and cough left him. 
His heavenly Father appeared to be dealing 
very gently with him. His nurse several 
times said, that death seemed to be coming 
upon him as sleep had formerly done when 
he was a little infant, and she had rocked 
him in her arms. 



116 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

When his last hour arrived, he had been 
in a doze for some time, and appeared very 
easy, though the approach of death was 
plain to all about him. His father, and 
mother, and Lucy, and Henry, and his nurse, 
were sitting by him, all quite silent for fear 
of disturbing him. He suddenly awoke, 
and looking round, he smiled sweetly : then 
raising his eyes, he was heard faintly to say, 
"O my Saviour! I am coming to be with 
thee for ever — for ever ! " He then pointed 
to a Prayer-Book which lay on his pillow, 
which his papa frequently used with him: 
and all the family kneeling round the bed, 
his papa began to say aloud that beautiful 
prayer for a sick child, in the service for 
the visitation of the sick, which begins with 
— " O Almighty God and merciful Father, 
to whom alone belong the issues of life and 
death/' 

The little fellow closed his eyes, as if in 
sleep, when he heard his papa's voice : but 
before the prayer was ended, they were 
closed in death. 

So sweetly, so calmly, did the soul of this 
dear child return to its Saviour and God, 
that though every body perceived he was 
gone by a gentle sigh, yet they felt such 
heavenly comfort in the assurance that he 
was removed to glory, that it seemed as if 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 117 

their heavenly Father was with them com- 
forting them. But if we would die the 
death of holy children, we must live their 
lives. I shall in my next chapter give some 
account of little Marten's funeral. 



118 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 



CHAPTER XX. 



" They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the 
stars for ever and ever." — Daniel xii. 3. 



JLlTTLE Marten's last requests were at- 
tended to, as far as was possible : his funeral 
was fixed for the Wednesday after his death. 
During the summer months there were lec- 
tures in the church every Wednesday; and 
Marten had begged, that, if it was possible, 
his earthly, remains might be laid to rest 
on one of these days. The rector of the 
next parish, a very good man, who was 
Marten's godfather, was requested to per- 
form the funeral service, and also to preach 
the sermon. Marten died on the 29th of 
April ; and the first Wednesday in May was 
the day of his funeral. James and John, 
and four more of the elder boys in the 
school, (for the rest of his own class were 
too small,) were chosen for his bearers; and 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 119 

each boy had a suit of dark grey cloth and 
a new hat given him to wear on the occa- 
sion. Marten's papa, and mamma, and 
Lucy, and Henry, followed as mourners; 
and likewise a first cousin of Marten's, of 
the name of Charles, a child whom he had 
always loved very much, and who had been 
sent for on the occasion; and also the son 
of Marten's god-father, a very good boy, 
who had been a companion of Marten's 
since they had been little infants. 

The funeral set out from the clergyman's 
house about six o'clock. The clergyman 
who was to perform the service walked first; 
he had on his gown aud cassock; and then 
followed the coffin, carried by the six little 
boys, with a black velvet pall thrown over 
it; then followed Marten's papa and mam- 
ma; and afterwards Lucy and Henry, hand 
in hand; and last, the two little boys I have 
mentioned. But I cannot tell you how many 
persons followed at a short distance : first, 
Marten's nurse, who cried as much as his 
mamma and sister, and the man-servant; 
and then one neighbour after another ga- 
thered together, some out of respect to his 
father and mother, and many out of love to 
the child. The schoolmaster had bidden 
all the Sunday-school children meet together 
in their Sunday-clothes, to shew their re- 



120 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

spect to the memory of their dear little mas- 
ter, and he himself took them to church in 
good time, that they might be quietly seat- 
ed before the funeral came in : and though 
there were so many following the procession, 
yet the church was half filled before it arri- 
ved. Many came together, as is always the 
case, to look about them : but the greater 
part came out of regard to Marten or his 
parents. The clergyman's house was al- 
most a quarter of a mile from the church; 
and ail the time the funeral was going along, 
the church-bell tolled slowly. 

Poor little Marten's parents felt their 
hearts, at times, very sad; and then again 
they would remember that it was only the 
earthly part of their dear child that they 
were following. They would look up to the 
bright blue sky, (for it was a sweet sun-shiny 
evening,) and they would call to mind, that 
the soul of their beloved boy was far beyond 
those bright skies, in a land of calm and hea- 
venly delight, dwelling with his Saviour, and 
seeing his glory. For while on earth he had 
been formed anew in his Saviour's image: 
and those who are made holy, shall, without 
doubt, be made happy. 

They were now arrived at tlie door of the 
church — that holy house which Marten in his 
life-time had so dearly loved. The surplice 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 121 

was put upon the clergyman, and he walk- 
ed into the church, repeating the sentences 
which begin the burial service — ■ I am the 
resurrection and the life,' &c. When he 
had got into the desk, while the coffin was 
being placed in the middle of / the aisle and 
the mourners were seating themselves round 
it, the organ struck up, and a hymn was 
sung, which I shall copy, as some little chil- 
dren might like to learn it by heart. 



Far from these narrow scenes of night, 

Unbounded glories rise, 
And realms of infinite delight, 

Unknown to mortal eyes. 

Fair distant land ! — could mortal eyes 

But half its joys explore, 
How would our spirits long to rise, 

And dwell on earth no more. 

No cloud those blissful regions know, 

For ever bright and fair! 
For sin, the source of mortal woe, 

Can never enter there. 

The glorious Monarch there displays 
His beams of wondrous grace: 

His happy subjects sing his praise, 
And bow before his face. 

O may the heavenly prospect fire 
Our hearts with ardent love, 

Till wings of faith and strong desire 
Bear every thought above. 
L 



122 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

Prepare us, Lord, by grace divine, 

For thy bright courts on high; 
Then bid our spirits rise and join 

The chorus of the sky. 

The usual evening service was read, only 
the chapter in the burial service was used 
instead of the second lesson; and then the 
sermon was preached. It was a very beau- 
tiful discourse, and drew tears from every 
eye. The text was — Out of the mouth of 
babes and sucklings have I perfected praise. 
The first part was an address to parents, 
and an earnest entreaty to them to devote 
their little ones betimes to that Saviour 
who has said, " Suffer the little children to 
come unto me, and forbid them not." The 
next part was addressed to children. The 
preacher explained to them, that though 
weak and helpless in themselves, as chil- 
dren, and though corrupt and evil, as the 
children of fallen parents, yet that they 
might shew forth their Saviour's glory as 
much as the oldest persons. He spoke 
particularly of the character and behaviour 
of their dear departed brother. He told 
them that he was by nature no better, no 
wiser than they were; but that he had re- 
ceived all his strength from Christ — that 
almost as soon as he learned to walk by the 
help of his earthly parents, and to ask them 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 123 

for every good thing he wanted in this world, 
he learned to walk in the heavenly way, by 
faith in his Saviour who had died for him, 
and to ask daily for strength to do the will 
of God. " You, my children, whom, young 
as he was, he taught in the Sunday-school, 
can remember how often he entreated you 
to pray in secret; and you who were his 
dearer and nearer friends, his brothers and 
sister and daily companions, can tell how it 
was his habit to pray daily and hourly. 
* Not all his pleasure or his play could 
tempt him to forget' his God. It was a 
thing settled and fixed in his heart, that he 
could do nothing good of himself: therefore 
he never trusted to himself. And thus, in 
a measure, it might be said of him, as of 
Abraham, He walked before God, and was 
perfect. His Bible, his hour of secret pray- 
er, the Sabbath-day, and house of God, were 
his chief delight while on earth; an hour or 
a day spent with his God were far sweeter 
to him than all those vain pleasures for 
which so many children give up their im- 
mortal souls. And God was with this child ; 
in this babe he perfected his praise. He 
lived long enough among you to set you an 
example of a dutiful and obedient child, a 
kind and affectionate brother. He has 
taught you by his example to be gentle. 



124 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

and kind, and patient, and humble, and 
self-denying, and industrious. He pointed 
the way, while with you, to his and your 
God — to his and your Saviour; and now he 
is gone before you to his Father's house. 
See that you follow where he has Jed. Re- 
fuse not to listen to his voice, as it were, 
still speaking to you from the grave." 

But I must not repeat any more of this 
excellent sermon, for it will take up too 
much time. Parents and children, old 
and young, were in tears almost all the 
time that it lasted, and sometimes sobbing 
aloud. 

After the sermon the ninetieth Psalm was 
sung; and then the body of little Marten 
was carried to its last quiet home. He was 
buried on the eastern side of the church- 
yard, close to the spot where a little infant 
sister of his had been laid to sleep several 
years before. Here he was put in the 
ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, 
dust to dust — but in sure and certain hope 
of the resurrection of the dead. For as 
sure as seeds and roots of lovely flowers, 
after they have lain in the ground during 
the winter, shall spring up, clothed in fresh 
and lively green, when the winter is gone 
and past, and the time of the singing of 
birds is come; so surely shall the bodies of 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 125 

all those persons who sleep in Jesus Christ 
come forth out of their grave in the morn- 
ing of the resurrection clothed with glory 
and immortality. 

After this account of little Marten's death, 
I have only a few words to say further about 
some of those friends whom he left behind, 
and whom he most loved. 

And first, you will be glad to hear that 
his sister Lucy and his brother Henry are 
doing every thing* in their power, like good 
and dutiful children, to make up to their 
parents the loss of their beloved brother. 
Henry becomes every day more like him; 
and their parents have the comfortable hope 
of seeing all their little ones once more to- 
gether in that heavenly country — 

Where blessed children, hand in hand, 
Circling their happy parents, stand. 

I must not forget to say, that Lucy and 
Henry both visit the Sunday-school, and try 
to make themselves as useful as their depart- 
ed brother. 

Marten's cousin Charles, who had once 
been rather a thoughtless child ; sinee Mar- 
ten's death, and since he heard the beautiful 
sermon which was preached at his funeral, 
has not been like the same child that he 
L 3 



126 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

used to be. So that it may be truly said 
of little Marten — The remembrance of the 
just smells sweet, and blossoms in the dust. 

John and James are growing up together 
in the fear of God, and walking in the house 
of God as friends. After the death of their 
dear little master, they used to meet at his 
grave (where a white stone was put up) 
whenever they had a convenient opportu- 
nity. It was very pleasant to them, when 
the wicked world about them was tempting 
them to sin, to get to this place of quiet, 
and think a little of that better place of rest 
which remains for the people of God. Here 
they would talk of the goodness of their Sa- 
viour, who had so blessed the instructions 
which this dear child had given them in his 
life-time; and here they would pray for 
grace to believe the promises of God, and 
to do his will on earth, that so they might 
be numbered among the saints in life ever- 
lasting. 

John's mother is fallen into a very bad 
state of health, and is almost confined to 
her bed. John has persuaded her to keep 
herself more quiet from company, and to 
hear a little reading; and the clergyman 
often calls upon her and talks to her; and 
it is hoped she will be brought to some 
sense of her sin and danger. 



MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 127 

John's eldest sister repays now the trou- 
ble he used to take with her. She has for 
several years attended the Sunday-school; 
and Lucy has been very kind to her. She is 
becoming a clean tidy girl, and makes her 
mother's house more comfortable than it 
ever was before. John is quite a father 
to the younger ones, and nearly maintains 
them by what he gets, for as yet they do not 
earn much. 

William and Mary Dainty have the com- 
fort of seeing all their children very pro- 
mising. Their two eldest daughters are in 
good services; the other girls are at school; 
and the boys that are old enough work with 
William and James in the pit. The blessing 
of God is upon the family of William and 
Mary Dainty. In the times of sickness, or 
when work is bad, they have always met 
with friends — they have never known want; 
and the peace of God is with them. 

W T illiam Dainty has sometimes seemed to 
lose a shilling or half-a-crown by keeping 
the Sabbath-day holy, and by going to 
church at times when there was business or 
errands to be done: but he has often said, 
" I never lost a sixpence in the way of pleas- 
ing God, but he has repaid it me, sooner or 
later, with a guinea. 

" The reason why there is so much misery 



128 MARTEN AND HIS SCHOLARS. 

in the world," he would often say, " is, be- 
cause people will not trust God, and follow 
him wholly. Let a man strive to please 
God in all he does, and he may trust him 
with all his concerns. It is said in the 
Gospel of St. Matthew, Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 
all these things shall be added unto you" 

L. 



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